


The Planet of the Mad Vampires.

by aquariuslover



Series: Expectations! [3]
Category: DBSK | Tohoshinki | TVfXQ | TVXQ, Star Trek, Super Junior
Genre: Bonding, Creepy Yoochun, Falling In Love, Family Secrets, Idiots in Love, Lovey-Dovey Yunjae, M/M, Marriage in Crisis, Pissed Ryeowook, Princess Heechul, Sad Sungmin, Smart Changmin, Ugly Vampire Bitches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-28
Updated: 2018-04-02
Packaged: 2019-04-14 06:56:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 30,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14130558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aquariuslover/pseuds/aquariuslover
Summary: Captain Yunho in an attempt to reward his crew for all their hard work gives them shore leave on what appears to be a safe planet. That illusion is soon broken when crew members start disappearing and fictional creatures straight out of Earth’s horror stories are to blame.





	1. Chapter 1

“I am never going anywhere with you two again,” Changmin seethed as he pulled against the shackles that kept him anchored to the wall. If he survived this shore leave excursion, he was going to protest if the captain ever assigned him to an away team with the both of them.  
  
“Us?” Junsu and Eunhyuk yelped back at him, surprised.  
  
“Yes, you two!” Changmin clarified as he tried to find that nice rational part of his brain.  
  
“You were the one who wanted to explore the ancient castle!” Junsu pointed out from his spot between Changmin and Eunhyuk. They were all shackled to the rock wall of an old dungeon.  
  
Eunhyuk nodded his head in agreement. “We just came along to provide you with company.”  
  
“I didn’t ask for any company! If I had been alone, I might have noticed… sensed this castle was not abandoned,” Changmin told them as he pulled harder against his shackles, cutting into his wrist.  
  
“Sensed? What, are you a Joong?” Junsu scoffed.  
  
Changmin stopped pulling against the shackle as he noticed blood dripping from his wrist. “No, I am not a Joong. There is such a thing as intuition…and also, I might have heard something if I hadn’t been forced to listen to your atrocious singing!”  
  
Junsu glared at Changmin. “Atrocious? I sing like an angel! I could have had a career in singing! At times like this, I wish I had!”  
  
“True, your voice is awesome,” Eunhyuk agreed with his friend, as he eyed what appeared to be a large, rat-like creature crawling on the dirt and straw covered floor.  
  
“I could be living the easy life, instead of being held prisoner by vampires!” Junsu complained as he eyed the rat-like creature that now had two friends with it as they crawled closer toward them.  
  
“They are not vampires,” Changmin insisted, keeping his eyes on the rat-like creatures that seemed to be attracted to the blood dripping from his wrist.  
  
“Did you see the teeth on those bitches?” Eunhyuk asked, as he remembered the tall, strong, hairy women who had dragged them into the dungeon.  
  
“Big fangs,” Junsu added, his eyes growing wider as seven rat-like creatures collected at Changmin’s feet, drinking up his spilled blood.  
  
“Vampires are fictional creations made purely for entertainment purposes,” Changmin explained as he tried to move one of his shackled ankles and failed.  
  
“Well, you tell them that when they come back for dinner,” Eunhyuk said, moaning as he watched a rat creature start to climb up Changmin’s leg.  
  
“I am sorry, but you are merely fictional…you can’t suck my blood. I somehow doubt that reasoning is going to work with them,” Junsu rambled as he turned his head, unable to watch the creature climb up Changmin.  
  
Changmin looked at the rat-like creature that was now sitting on his shoulder, licking at the blood that had dripped down his arm. “Now would be a most opportune time for the captain to arrive on the planet with his telepathic mate.”  
  
  
EIGHT HOURS EARLIER  
  
  
“Class M?” The captain asked as he looked over Ensign Choi’s shoulder at the back of the bridge. The young ensign was reading over the sensors at the science station. They were orbiting around an Earth-like planet that they had come upon.  
  
The dark-haired, bright-eyed ensign turned to the captain and nodded his head. “Yes, Sir. It appears to be uninhabited. There are old structures on the planet estimated to be thousands of years old.”  
  
The captain took a step back and stepped away from the ensign after patting him on the shoulder. “Good find, Ensign.”  
  
“Thank you, Sir,”  
  
“So what do you think?” Lieutenant Yesung asked as he followed the captain back to the command chair.  
  
“It looks very promising,” the captain said as he sat down. The captain then turned to Jaejoong, who was fighting to keep his eyes open in the old counselor’s chair that he had claimed as his own. “Jae, what do you think? Do you sense anything?”  
  
Jaejoong blinked to clear his eyes and shook his head. “From space? It’s very rare that even a Joong can pick up something from space. I can’t sense anything,” Jaejoong said aloud for the benefit of the crew.  _“Also, even I require more than two hours of sleep at night,”_  he complained mentally to the captain.  
  
The captain looked back to Yesung and smiled. “Alright let’s do a few more scans, and if everything turns out okay, then I say, shore leave it is.”  
  
Jaejoong startled as the happiness of the crew washed over him at the mention of shore leave.  _“We don’t have to go down there, do we?”_  
  
“Lieutenant Yesung, I have the bridge for now. Go get some rest,” the captain told the lieutenant, making the other man smile.  _“No, we will stay on the ship,”_  Yunho answered Jaejoong privately in his mind.  
  
_“And have lots and lots of sex?”_  Jaejoong thought joyfully. If the Expectations was parked in orbit over a planet while the crew enjoyed their break…then Yunho would be all his.  
  
“Thank you, Sir,” Yesung told him. “It will be nice to get in bed before 0600 hours for once…since I have been required to pick up so much extra time as of late.”  
  
The captain ignored Yesung’s subtle attack and replied, “Your time is very appreciated, Lieutenant. Rest well.”  
  
“I will, Sir,” Yesung told him, making his way off the bridge.  
  
_“Lots of sex? Confirm for me there will be lots of sex?”_  Jaejoong thought toward Yunho as he leaned against the man’s arm. Jaejoong smiled as he imagined what they could be doing while the rest of the crew enjoyed their shore leave.  
  
_“Yes. Lots of sex without any interruptions.”  
  
“I might forgive you for waking me up at 0500 hours now.”  
  
“You know it’s important for me to be available to all of my crew. Not just the ones that work during the waking hours.”  
  
“Whatever. Your dedication to your crew is tiring. It’s been five days since the gateway opened, and we have only made love eighteen times.”_  
  
Yunho turned his head to look down at the man who was half asleep, leaning against his arm.  _“You are so mistreated.”_  
  
*****************  
  
  
“Now, here is your breakfast! Eat up!” Heechul told Sungmin as he sat the food tray in front of Sungmin on his bedside table.  
  
Sungmin ignored the breakfast and just stared dumbfounded at Heechul, who was wearing an old fashioned nursing cap and uniform…that was a white dress. “I’m not hungry.”  
  
Heechul pointed his finger at Sungmin. “Shame on you! You want to make Dr. Cho grumpier than he already is?”  
  
Sungmin, who was still in his hospital bed, just shook his head. “No, I'm just not hungry.”  
  
“Tiss, Tiss-” Heechul stopped when raised voices could be heard from another part of sickbay.  
  
Sungmin groaned. “They are at it again.”  
  
Heechul rubbed his hands together gleefully. “Lovers’ quarrels…it’s so romantic. Don’t you think?”  
  
Sungmin didn’t answer Heechul; instead, he just frowned up at him.  
  
“Oops, guess you wouldn’t think so. The assumed dead spouse returns to find that his husband and best friend are sleeping together. It’s the most drama this ship has had since the captain got himself a sex slave.”  
  
“Isn’t it so nice that we can exist purely for your entertainment.”  
  
Heechul’s smile brightened more, and he nodded his head in agreement. “It really is. I have to go and find a better place to eavesdrop. Eat your breakfast, or the doctor will be very upset!” Heechul told him as he scurried off quickly in the direction of the raised voices.  
  
“Shut the door,” Sungmin yelled, hoping to get Heechul to shut the door, but Heechul was already gone. He didn’t want to hear any part of their fight. He didn’t want to know that Kyuhyun was in sickbay so close, yet so far away.  
  
“No problem, you don’t have to yell,” Eunhyuk said, walking into Sungmin’s room. Eunhyuk shut the door behind him.  
  
Sungmin, who felt like he was going to cry, looked up at Eunhyuk gratefully. “I wasn’t yelling at you…Heechul was just in here.”  
  
“I saw him…her,” Eunhyuk told him as he sat down in the chair beside Sungmin’s bed. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen Heechul look so happy.”  
  
Sungmin rubbed his nose and let a small chuckle. “He gets to be a real nurse now. He’s thrilled. What brings you here?”  
  
“Can’t I just come and check on a friend?”  
  
Sungmin nodded his head. “Yes, but it’s a little early.”  
  
“I have an appointment with Dr. Cho…about a medical concern of mine, but he’s busy at the moment.”  
  
“You mean he is busy fighting with Kyuhyun. It’s the same story every day. Kyuhyun comes to plead for forgiveness, and Ryeowook chases him off. When I would be more than happy to see…” Sungmin trailed off, sighing sadly.  
  
Eunhyuk looked at his friend who was clearly upset. “He hasn’t come to check on you?”  
  
Sungmin shook his head and tried to control his emotions that were threatening to overwhelm him. “No, he just comes to sickbay to see Ryeowook.”  
  
“Maybe it’s good that he doesn’t come and see you. He could be doing that to protect you? I mean pissing off Dr. Cho wouldn’t be good for you,” Eunhyuk offered, not believing his own words even as he said them.  
  
Sungmin smiled fondly at his friend. “You don’t believe that, and neither do I. Ryeowook would never let his personal feelings about somebody affect how he treated them…he’s too good of a doctor…too good of a person for that matter. I stopped existing for Kyuhyun the moment we got that distress signal.”  
  
Eunhyuk looked away from Sungmin and decided it was time to point out some unpleasant truths. “Sungmin, I know you love him. I know you’ve loved him for a long time, but he never claimed the same.”  
  
Sungmin’s eyes narrowed at his friend. “So it shouldn’t hurt? Because he never claimed to love me. Well, it does hurt. Do you know how long I have loved him?”  
  
Eunhyuk turned back around to face his friend. “Of course I know. For almost ten years, it’s all you have ever talked about. You loved him at first sight…I know the story, but I also know it was always one-sided.”  
  
“Maybe you should go.”  
  
“I don’t mean to say this to hurt you. Kyuhyun loves Ryeowook…he always did. He knew how you felt about him, and he used you,” Eunhyuk told him as he stood up and moved closer to Sungmin’s bed.  
  
“I know he used me, and I didn’t care. I thought I could change him, but now Ryeowook is back and-”  
  
“And what?”  
  
Sungmin sniffled, hating how weak he felt both in body and soul. “It’s too late…now. I know I have to let him go, but I don’t know how. It’s so hard.”  
  
“I know,” Eunhyuk said, full of sympathy as he squeezed his friend’s hand.  
  
  
**********************  
  
Siwon had just made his way to the door leading to sickbay, when Commander Cho came storming out of it, almost knocking him over. Siwon bowed apologetically, but Commander Cho just huffed and continued to storm off.  
  
Siwon entered sickbay cautiously and wasn’t surprised to find a red-faced Ryeowook on the other side of the doorway. “Was it something I did?”  
  
Ryeowook shook his head. “No, it has nothing to do with you. He’s just angry with me.”  
  
“Oh, still not feeling forgiving?”  
  
“Hardly, he makes me so mad,” Ryeowook complained, rubbing his eyes with his hands. “He thinks I should just accept everything because he thought I was dead…like that makes everything alright.”  
  
Siwon smiled down at his short friend. “I know it has to be rough for you.”  
  
Ryeowook finished wiping his eyes and looked up at Siwon and apologized, “That’s still no excuse for being such a bad friend to you. I’m really sorry.”  
  
Siwon furrowed his brows, at a loss. “Sorry?”  
  
“You are new to the ship, and I just abandoned you. I should have at least showed you around. There is no excuse for my rudeness,” Ryeowook explained.  
  
“You are unbelievable. Are you apologizing for being busy saving lives and taking care of people? Ryeowook, you are too much,” Siwon said, shaking his head fondly at the younger man.  
  
Ryeowook blushed, embarrassed. “Actually I only had to save one life…the rest is just catching up on work. The whole crew is behind on physicals. I mean, I need to check everybody over. There is one person I really need to check over. Dr. Kim-”  
  
“That’s Nurse Heechul!” Heechul yelled from the other room where he was eavesdropping.  
  
“Nurse Heechul,” Ryeowook said, correcting himself, “isn’t the amazing doctor who I knew before the accident.”  
  
“I’m just amazing now,” Heechul said, sashaying up to them.  
  
Siwon did a double take as the beautiful man approached him. “I agree, absolutely amazing. I’m Prince Siwon, and I’m pleased to meet you.”  
  
Heechul glowed at the compliment. “Aren’t you handsome? I think I might be in love.”  
  
“Nurse, did you finish doing what I asked?” Ryeowook asked, suddenly wary of the two of them.  
  
Heechul frowned. “No, but-”  
  
“No excuses. Go do it,” Ryeowook ordered.  
  
“Gawd! You are such a tight ass! I can’t wait ‘til you let Kyuhyun fuck you into a good mood,” Heechul seethed, storming off to finish his work.  
  
Ryeowook turned redder and looked at Siwon apologetically. “You have to be very careful with him. I have not even begun to diagnosis his psychosis, much less come up with a way of treating it. Although in many ways he is much better off than Leeteuk…he is very volatile.”  
  
“I assure you, I have no plans involving him. I was just admiring his beauty.”  
  
“For your sake, keep it that way. The real Dr. Kim was one of the most intelligent people I ever encountered, and he was eccentric, but his mentality was rock solid. He is a very sick man now, and we must be careful not to forget that,” Ryeowook explained, with just a touch of warning.  
  
“Understood.”  
  
“I wish I had time to spend with you, but I just don’t. The crew has basically spent a year in space without being probably cared for. I have a lot of catching up to do.”  
  
“Well…actually, I am not here to see you,” Siwon confessed. When Ryeowook just looked up at him confused, Siwon added, “On my planet if you save a person’s life, you are responsible for that person for the rest of your life.”  
  
“You will have to forgive me if I don’t follow that philosophy myself,” Ryeowook said, unable to hide his irritation as he walked off toward Sungmin’s sickbay room. “Follow me.”  
  
Siwon winced, feeling the other man’s hurt. “Well, I guess you actually saved his life, and I just pulled him from the water.”  
  
“No, don’t discredit your actions. If you hadn’t grabbed him, I wouldn’t have had anybody to save,” Ryeowook said, opening the door to Sungmin’s room.  
  
Ryeowook didn’t miss the look of hope that flashed across Sungmin’s face when the door first opened, and then quickly disappeared when Ryeowook and Siwon entered the room. Ryeowook stared at the untouched breakfast tray in front of Sungmin and frowned. “Are you going to eat? I am getting tired of injecting nutrients into you, Lieutenant. There is no reason why you can’t eat. Do I need to have Nurse Heechul force feed you?”  
  
“No Doctor, I just haven’t got much of an appetite,” Sungmin explained, avoiding eye contact with Ryeowook.  
  
“I can give you something to stimulate your appetite, but I wish you would resolve the problem on your own. I am sure the captain would like to have his chief of security back in functioning order, instead of taking up a bed in sickbay,” Ryeowook snapped.  
  
Sungmin met Ryeowook’s eyes, surprised. “If I eat, I can be discharged?”  
  
“Perhaps if you eat, get out of bed, and show me some sign that you are ready to take on your duties,” Ryeowook told Sungmin, purposely being firm.  
  
“I will,” Sungmin promised, grabbing a fork and stuffing rice into his mouth.  
  
“Good,” Ryeowook told him, fighting off a grin. “This is Prince Siwon. He saved your life…and now he feels like he’s responsible for you.”  
  
Sungmin, who had a mouth full of food, looked up at the handsome man who had followed Ryeowook into the room. Sungmin swallowed his food down quickly and told the man, “That’s ridiculous. You are not responsible for me.”  
  
“My sentiments exactly, but this prince can be pretty stubborn,” Ryeowook told him as he eyed Eunhyuk, who was sitting in the chair, looking none too pleased.  
  
Siwon smiled at Sungmin, amazed at the change in the man. The last time he had seen him, he had been ghostly pale, and he had almost been ripped apart. “My people believe differently.”  
  
“That’s honorable and all, but it really isn’t necessary. Saving my life was more than enough.”  
  
“Eunhyuk, come with me, and I’ll check you over,” Ryeowook ordered as he gave Sungmin one more clinical look over and headed toward the door.  
  
Eunhyuk hurriedly scrambled out of the chair and followed Ryeowook out of the room. “Dr. Cho, I can’t thank you enough for seeing me.”  
  
Ryeowook led the way to an exam room and shut the door behind them. “Get up on the table.”  
  
Eunhyuk jumped up on the exam table, causing the sensors at the head of the bed to come alive. “Heechul said there wasn’t anything that could be done, but I’m hoping that was just the crazy talking.”  
  
Ryeowook’s eyes widened as he studied the readings the scanners were giving him. “Pull down your pants.”  
  
Eunhyuk winced at the thought of showing anybody, but Ryeowook was a doctor, so he pulled down his pants, showing his genitals that were covered in purple warts. “They don’t hurt. It just itches.”  
  
“Where did you get that?”  
  
“Well…umm we were having shore leave on this nice, little-”  
  
“Ensign, what is the first rule of Star Fleet?” Ryeowook demanded as he turned around and grabbed a hypospray from the metal cabinet behind him.  
  
“Do not interfere with the internal development of alien civilizations-”  
  
“The other first rule!”  
  
“Don’t have sex with unclassified aliens,” Eunhyuk admitted shamefully.  
  
“Exactly! You are lucky your genitals didn’t fall off,” Ryeowook griped as he injected the hypospray into Eunhyuk’s neck.  
  
“What is that?” Eunhyuk asked, reaching up to touch his neck where Ryeowook had injected the medicine.  
  
“It’s an antiviral. The warts should start falling off within the hour. If I ever see evidence that you are sampling the goods on some planet again, I am going to put you on report,” Ryeowook said, folding his arms.  
  
Eunhyuk sat up quickly on the side of the exam table. “But Doc, we are on a ship full of men, and no offense, but not all of us are attracted to men.”  
  
Ryeowook looked at Eunhyuk doubtfully, and then said with no sympathy at all, “Then love thyself, crewman.”  
  
“Even the captain hooked up with an alien!” Eunhyuk pointed out in his defense.  
  
“I assure you, the captain and I are going to have a long talk in the future, but I need you to get out of here now. I have a list of things I need to do,” Ryeowook snapped, clapping his hands together to hurry Eunhyuk on his way.  
  
Eunhyuk jumped off the exam table and hurried toward the door, but paused before exiting and turned back to face Ryeowook. “Dr. Cho, it’s so good to have you back.”  
  
Ryeowook couldn’t help grinning back at him. “Go!”  
  
***************  
  
  
Junsu walked into the ship’s mess hall and walked up to the food replicator and ordered a breakfast of cereal and fruit. The food replicator soon dispensed his tray of food. Junsu then turned around and eyed the tables in the room, trying to decide where he should sit.  
  
In the back of the room, were the guys from astrophysics who always made him feel stupid. At another table were the guys from security who made him feel like a wimp. Then at another table was Commander Yoochun, who always grabbed his ass, making him feel like a sex object. And at the very last table was Lieutenant Changmin, who always made him feel unwelcome. Junsu took a deep breath and decided to take the least painful option.  
  
“Good Morning!” Junsu told Lieutenant Changmin as he sat down across from him with a bright smile.  
  
“Is it?” Changmin asked, not looking up as he continued to eat the fruit on his plate.  
  
Junsu sighed and picked up his spoon. “They say ninety percent of your day is determined by your mood. So, I am thinking positively.”  
  
Changmin’s eyes sharpened as he looked up at Junsu. “Who says that? That isn’t logical. For instance, positivity has no affect on space anomalies, random attacks, and ruptures in the space-time continuum; so to say your morning is-”  
  
“Forget I said anything,” Junsu pleaded, regretting not sitting with the guys from astrophysics now.  
  
“If only my memory were that faulty,” Changmin informed Junsu as he looked up as Eunhyuk entered the dining hall. “It appears your accomplice in all things has arrived.”  
  
Junsu turned around and smiled as Eunhyuk joined them at the table. Eunhyuk took a seat beside Junsu. “I am a new man,” Eunhyuk proclaimed, all smiles.  
  
“The purple warts - ” Junsu asked tentatively.  
  
Eunhyuk beamed. “Falling off as we speak, and I couldn’t be happier. I don’t know how long it’s been since I haven’t had to fight the urge to itch my balls.”  
  
“Six months, seven days, four hours and approximated forty-five minutes,” Changmin clarified. “Since you thought having sexual relations with a female with amphibian characteristics was a good idea.”  
  
“Don’t remind me,” Eunhyuk complained. “I am thinking the whole ship should just start practicing celibacy.”  
  
“Speak for yourself; I’m basically celibate now, since I won’t hook up with frog women,” Junsu said sadly, “and I am sick of it. I want to go home. I want to return to Earth.”  
  
“You didn’t have sex when you were on Earth either,” Eunhyuk pointed out as he stuffed an egg in his mouth.  
  
“Shut up,” Junsu groaned, not wanting to be reminded of his less than stellar experience with the ladies.  
  
Changmin, who had been studying them intently, replied, “I agree the ship should become celibate. I believe it would increase efficiency.”  
  
“Says the Vulcan wannabe,” Junsu grumbled.  
  
“You agree with me?” Eunhyuk asked Changmin in disbelief. He couldn’t ever remember Changmin agreeing with him willingly.  
  
“The current state of the ship now is directly related to sexual mishaps.”  
  
“What’s wrong with the ship?” Junsu asked curiously.  
  
“They are all sex crazy,” Eunhyuk happily enlightened him. “Sungmin is in sickbay, lovesick over Commander Cho, who couldn’t care less about him. Commander Cho is lovesick over Dr. Cho...Dr. Cho, who would like to shoot Commander Cho out an airlock without a spacesuit. And the captain - ” Eunhyuk paused.  
  
“The captain is too busy having sexy times to stay on the bridge like he used to. Lieutenant Yesung doesn’t even like me, and it’s like he is always on the bridge. It’s like ‘Junsu do this, and Junsu do that’,” Junsu added, groaning. He hated when the captain wasn’t on the bridge. Before the captain had found his bondmate, the man had lived on the bridge.  
  
Eunhyuk nodded his head. “It’s because he knows the captain favors you, so he takes it out on you. He is too big of a coward to go after Changmin.”  
  
“Well, I don’t want to be the captain’s favorite ‘til he starts thinking with the head that’s attached to his shoulders.”  
  
“I don’t think you need to worry about that for awhile,” the captain’s voice said from behind Junsu.  
  
Junsu looked accusingly across the table to a smirking Changmin, who had failed to warn him of the captain’s arrival. Junsu closed his eyes and whimpered, “Captain….I didn’t-”  
  
“Don’t bother, Ensign,” Yunho told him as he came around the table and sat down beside Changmin. Jaejoong, who was with him, sat down beside the captain and gave Junsu a sympathetic look.  
  
“He was only speaking the truth,” Changmin said, unwilling to let the matter die down. “You have been neglecting your duties.”  
  
“Changmin - ” Yunho said in his disapproving, fatherly voice.  
  
“Captain,” Changmin said with emphasis on captain, making Yunho frown. “You and Commander Cho are too focused on your love lives to run the ship properly.”  
  
“Lieutenant, there is nothing happening on this ship that I am not perfectly aware of. I have not missed a shift since I was released from sickbay. Is this perhaps about something else? Do you feel like I am neglecting you?” Yunho asked, remaining perfectly calm.  
  
Changmin turned to his father and then looked past him to Jaejoong, who was playing with the fruit on his plate, doing his best to stay out of the conversation. “I assure you my concern has nothing to do with our familial ties. I’m merely concerned with the functioning of this ship. If anybody told you differently, then-”  
  
Jaejoong looked up from his fruit, feeling the waves of accusation emanating off Changmin. “I rarely, if ever, speak your name. I most certainly do not confide your inner thoughts to him.”  
  
Yunho turned to Jaejoong, realizing the truth of his words. “Why? Why don’t you ever mention him? He is my son…my family.”  
  
“You know, I need to get to the bridge,” Junsu said, getting up quickly.  
  
Eunhyuk jumped out of his seat, too eager to escape before the fight broke out. “I should also get to the bridge. Bye.”  
  
“You’re not dismissed. Sit down,’ the captain ordered, not taking his eyes off Jaejoong. The two ensigns sat back down quickly.  
  
_“You never mention him? Does it bother you I have a son?”  
  
“No.”  
  
“Are you sure? I am bonded to you for life, but I have a son from the future. Proof that in the future, I have a relationship with somebody else…why would that not bother you?”  
  
“I assure you, it does not bother me.”  
  
“It would bother me.”  
  
“Yunho, just because you have Changmin, does not mean you cheated on me. There are many ways to conceive children. Technology has made sex obsolete when it comes to the reproduction process.”_  
  
“Oh, that makes perfect sense,” Yunho said aloud.  
  
“What makes perfect sense?” Changmin demanded. “Were you two having a telepathic conversation?”  
  
Yunho looked at his son guiltily. “Yes, that was very rude of us.”  
  
“You are telepathic now, too?” Changmin questioned as his eyes narrowing in dislike. “This is highly unusual if your brain has been-”  
  
“Only with Jae; it’s a side of effect of the bonding process. Don’t get in a huff, I am not reading your mind…I don’t need to read your mind to know what you are thinking.”  
  
Changmin huffed. “I highly doubt that.”  
  
Yunho elbowed Changmin affectionately. “You want to bet? If I guess right, you have to swab the docking bay with a toothbrush.”  
  
Junsu and Eunhyuk laughed as they watched the mood quickly change, as Yunho pestered his son.  
  
“Captain, that is a highly unprofessional, but what will you do if you guess wrong?” Changmin couldn’t help but ask.  
  
“I will swab it,” Yunho said fearlessly. “Jae can be the judge, so you can’t weasel your way out of it.”  
  
“Yunho, I would never weasel!” Changmin insisted, highly offended as he glared at his bothersome father.  
  
“That’s captain to you,” Yunho told his son, amused.  
  
Jaejoong, who had been sitting quietly beside Yunho listening to the two of them, tensed suddenly. “The point is mute. I am not reading Changmin’s mind.”  
  
Changmin and Yunho both turned toward Jaejoong, who looked extremely uncomfortable. “Aren’t your empathic abilities always turned on? I mean if he was squirming out of swabbing the deck, couldn’t you tell that without reading his mind?”  
  
“I do not squirm!” Changmin protested.  
  
Jaejoong shook his head. “Lieutenant Jung is an extremely private individual, and I will not violate his privacy.”  
  
Yunho frowned suspiciously, and Changmin’s eyes brightened instantly. Changmin nodded his head approvingly. “That’s actually very comforting.”  
  
Yunho leaned back in his chair, not very pleased. His bondmate did avoid Changmin…almost like Changmin was distasteful to him. Yunho was highly suspicious of the reasons he was given. Yunho couldn’t help but ask himself why. Why would his bondmate go to such an extent to avoid Changmin…if the fact that Changmin was his son didn’t bother him?  
  
_“Yunho, do not be angry with me.”_  
  
Yunho ignored Jaejoong’s mental plea and eyed the two ensigns in front of him who were watching the three of them of them instead of eating. “Finish your breakfast.” Junsu and Eunhyuk nodded their heads quickly and starting stuffing food in their mouths.  
  
_“Yunho?”_  
  
_“I am not interested in any of your excuses right now. If you want to speak to me, do it with your mouth,”_  Yunho snapped back mentally at Jaejoong. Yunho had very keen instincts, and he could not fight the feeling that he was being lied to. Jaejoong flinched beside him, but did not say anything.  
  
“So, how do you guys feel about going on shore leave?” the captain asked, changing the subject.  
  
“Shore leave?” the ensigns repeated back to him, amazed. Changmin raised his right eyebrow at the question.  
  
“That would be freaking awesome!” Eunhyuk said, full of enthusiasm.  
  
Junsu nodded his head in quick agreement. “That would be great!”  
  
“Very late during the night we came upon a class M planet that once was home to a primitive race of humans that no longer-”  
  
Jaejoong’s insignia chirped, interrupting the captain. Dr. Cho’s voice could be clearly heard. “Jae, this is Dr. Cho. I need to see you in sickbay now…and I need to see you alone.”  
  
Jaejoong, who was surprised at the interruption, looked down at his blue uniform that Yunho had programmed the dressing chamber to provide him with, and then to Yunho. Jaejoong fought his instinct to span the distance with his mind and gaze into Ryeowook’s thoughts. “Why would he want me?”  
  
Yunho, who was still irritated with his mate, just raised his eyebrows. “He’s a doctor. I am sure he has lots of questions for you…he’s probably not satisfied with Heechul’s findings.”  
  
“Don’t worry, he’s very helpful,” Eunhyuk supplied, eager to lessen Jaejoong’s worries.  
  
“Especially with purple warts,” Junsu muttered under his breath, leading to Eunhyuk kicking him under the table.  
  
Changmin, who looked extremely curious now, questioned, “Alone? Wouldn’t the both of you have to go?”  
  
“Probably not necessary now,” Yunho informed Changmin, but turned to Jaejoong to confirm, “Right?” Yunho was very confident that the last week together had strengthened their bond.  
  
“I am capable of going to sickbay on my own,” Jaejoong answered, standing up from the table. Jaejoong looked down at Yunho. “But please do not beam down to the planet without me and kill us both.”  
  
“Point taken,” Yunho said, wincing. “But the ship? Will the bond now reach everywhere on the ship?”  
  
“It should,” Jaejoong said, walking away from the table, looking very nervous and unsure of himself. It was the first time he had been without Yunho on the ship.  
  
“Wait,” Yunho ordered, sensing Jaejoong’s unease. Yunho quickly got up from the table and pulled Changmin up with him. “We will escort you to sickbay.”  
  
“We will?” Changmin questioned.  
  
“Yes, we will,” Yunho informed him as he led Changmin by the arm and met Jaejoong at the doorway.  
  
Jaejoong forced a smile. “You really don’t need to.”  
  
“I know, but I want to,” Yunho said, maneuvering himself between the two men as they made their way to sickbay down the corridor.  
  
“I do not want to,” Changmin corrected, knowing his father was up to no good. It was more than obvious that Jaejoong was not comfortable around him.  
  
“Changmin, it’s time you two got better acquainted. Neither one of you are going anywhere.”  
  
“I thought Jae was going to sickbay,” Changmin replied back, being purposely insolent.  
  
Yunho frowned up as his tall son. “You’re showing your immaturity.”  
  
“I was merely stating a fact.”  
  
Yunho straightened his shoulders. “Jae is my bondmate for life, and you are my brother…son for life. I need you two to make some effort to get to know each other.”  
  
“Brother?” Jaejoong asked instantly, catching on to Yunho’s slip of the tongue.  
  
“We were raised as brothers.  When I discovered the truth of our true relationship at the age of eight…Yunho had difficulty accepting it,” Changmin informed Jaejoong in a completely neutral tone.  
  
“I was ten years old, and you were eight,” Yunho said sighing, “It isn’t like I abandoned you on the street.”  
  
“You were the one that discovered your father and son relationship?” Jaejoong asked confused.  
  
“Our parents knew-”  
  
“My grandparents knew,” Changmin interrupted, correcting Yunho. “They thought it best for everyone if we were raised as brothers. It would have worked out if I had not been so intelligent.”  
  
“Never lacking in intelligence, but always lacking in modesty,” Yunho mumbled under his breath.  
  
“I was doing an advanced biology course for my age. I used Yunho as my test subject, and once I studied his DNA, there was no mistaking my paternity,” Changmin explained.  
  
“And how did you determine you came from the future?” Jaejoong asked.  
  
“A person’s genetic code tells all you need ever know about a person. It is time stamped, and I was not the product of a two year old Yunho.”  
  
Jaejoong’s eyes widened. “Your science is amazing. Can this genetic code tell you when you will be conceived?”  
  
Yunho and Changmin both looked at Jaejoong suspiciously. “Not the exact time of conception, but you can approximate from its structure. It should be within the next five years.”  
  
Jaejoong swallowed, looking paler. “Really? That soon?”  
  
“Soon?” Yunho repeated, not liking the tension he suddenly felt coming off Jaejoong. “I thought you were not bothered by Changmin’s existence? I thought you said technology made sex obsolete where reproduction is involved?”  
  
Before Jaejoong could answer Yunho, Changmin spoke up, “I must admit, when I found out your original form was that of a hermaphrodite, and you were apparently capable of changing genders, I did suspect you were my other parent.”  
  
“But the testing proved otherwise,” Yunho pointed out.  
  
Changmin nodded his head in agreement. “It did.”  
  
“Yes, that’s what the testing said,” Jaejoong eagerly agreed, and then focused on Yunho. “I am not bothered by Changmin being your son, but I am curious about his continued existence after his conception. Can a person exist as two different beings at the same point in time?”  
  
Changmin’s eyes widened in instant understanding.  “That is the question. Will I blink out of existence? I do not know. The greatest minds in the Federation do not know.”  
  
“Well, I know. You will be perfectly fine. I am already signing you up to babysit yourself,” Yunho said, speeding up, not liking the change the topic had taken.  
  
“No, you wish this to be true. You do not know it. Time is a very delicate matter. I could blink out of existence at any time,” Changmin said as he sped up to keep up with Yunho.  
  
“You have been saying that since you were eight years old,” Yunho told him as he reached the entry way that led to sickbay.  
  
“And it doesn’t make it any less true,” Changmin told Yunho as he followed the older man into sickbay. Jaejoong timidly followed them.  
  
Dr. Cho met them as soon as they entered sickbay. “What part of alone do you two not get?”  
  
“We were just providing moral support, Doctor,” Yunho explained as Jaejoong walked up beside him.  
  
“I was brought here against my will,” Changmin happily pointed out. “I completely understand the meaning of alone.”  
  
Yunho shook his head at his difficult son. “I should also go check on Sungmin while I am here.”  
  
“No, you should leave right now. Goodbye,” Dr. Cho told the captain.  
  
“Doctor, I would be-”  
  
“Captain, you have checked on Sungmin everyday. You can check on him later in the day. I am going to examine Jae privately. Captain, you and Changmin are leaving…now,” Ryeowook told the captain, refusing to back down.  
  
Changmin couldn’t help smiling and grabbed Yunho’s arm. “You always said you wanted a Chief Medical Officer you couldn’t intimidate.”  
  
“I never said that,” Yunho grumbled as Changmin tried to pull him toward the door.  
  
“I distinctly remember you saying it repeatedly,” Changmin said, smiling.  
  
Yunho sighed and allowed himself to be pulled toward the door. “This is a case of being careful of what you ask for.” Yunho paused at the door and turned back to Jaejoong. “If you need me, and I’m out of telepathic range…use the insignia.”  
  
“You won’t be out of range. I will be fine…I love you,” Jaejoong told him aloud, making Changmin frown and making the captain smile uncomfortably.  
  
Ryeowook pointed toward the door, having mercy on the captain. “Out now!” The captain was eager to escape now, and exited quickly. Then Ryeowook turned to Jaejoong. “You follow me.”  
  
Jaejoong nodded his head and followed Ryeowook to a private exam room. “I really don’t think this examination is necessary.”  
  
Dr. Cho smiled at him and patted the exam table. “Humor me.”  
  
“I am self-healing, so there isn’t really a need for me to have a doctor,” Jaejoong explained as he sat on the exam table, making the monitors above the table go wild.  
  
“Like I said, humor me,” Ryeowook said as he looked up at the readings and then back to Jaejoong.  
  
“Doctor, I do not wish to-”  
  
“Do you not wish to erase or manipulate my memory?” Ryeowook interrupted, asking Jaejoong as he let out a deep breath and looked back to the other man.  
  
“No,” Jaejoong confessed, looking away from Dr. Cho guiltily.  
  
“But you will… but before you do, can I ask you a question?”  
  
Jaejoong nodded his head, refusing to look at Ryeowook.  
  
“Why is the fact that Changmin is your son such a huge secret?”


	2. Chapter 2

Jaejoong looked back at Ryeowook and answered him without hesitation, “Because from the moment a Joong is born, they are taught to respect the power of time.”

“Time?”

“There was once a powerful race that sprang from this galaxy, and it was fascinated by the power of time. This race eventually evolved to a point that most of its members moved on to a higher plain of existence, while others converted back into a more primitive form…where they could still experience the mysteries and joys of life,” Jaejoong explained.

Ryeowook leaned against the wall. “You’re losing me. What does this have to do with you not telling the captain and Changmin you are the missing link to their family?”

“There are many that believe the Joongs are what some members of that once powerful race reverted back to. We do not hold the memories or the knowledge of that race, but we do have abilities that are remarkable at times. We are the only race that the Guardians will listen to,” Jaejoong explained.

“The Guardians?”

“The Guardians of Time. They are portals made of some indestructible element that the ancient race left behind…they open to time. Through them, you can be carried to the past or the future, and then returned to your own time. They are very rare, but they are scattered across the entire universe. If I - ” Jaejoong paused, “used one of those to send Changmin back. I can not even begin to imagine why…or why it would let me. The Guardians of Time are very particular about what they will allow you to do.”

Ryeowook’s mouth fell open as he listened to the story Jaejoong spun for him of ancient beings and of Guardians of Time. “So you think you are responsible for Changmin going back in time?”

“I know I am. The bond between a Joong and their child is immense. I would not have let anybody else separate us.”

Ryeowook frowned. “You don’t seem very close to him now.”

“No,” Jaejoong agreed.

“I assume you have manipulated Changmin’s mind, because there is no way he hasn’t figured out you are his other parent.”

“I have,” Jaejoong confessed. “I have manipulated his, Yunho’s and Heechul’s.”

“And I will be next?”

“It depends on you. I will not allow anything to happen that might jeopardize Changmin’s life. Time is too delicate to be toyed with.”

“But he…they will someday find out, and they won’t be happy with you,” Ryeowook pointed out.

“I know this, but still…I can not risk Changmin’s continued existence. I would rather be overprotective of the secret of his Joong blood than not be protective enough.”

“I am curious if-”

“You are wondering if you keep my secret, if I will spare your memories - ” Jaejoong said, staring into Ryeowook’s eyes, making the doctor suddenly feel a chill.

“In order to keep my memories intact, then I will keep your secret. My knowing may someday be of a help to all of you.”

Jaejoong’s eyes narrowed as he studied Ryeowook. “If you betray me, you will forget everything, and everybody you confided in will forget also.”

“Understood. I do have questions, though,” Ryeowook said, rubbing his arm nervously. “Changmin appears perfectly human. Is he?”

Jaejoong sighed loudly and fell back on the exam table. “This is a good question that has occupied my thoughts. He can’t be perfectly human, but his mind has so many guards up, it’s difficult to tell how many of the Joong traits he has inherited from me.”

“He’s always been very guarded. It’s very hard for him to open up to people. In the Academy, he would have been a recluse if he had his way,” Ryeowook explained. “He has always enjoyed expanding his knowledge more than retaining friends.”

Jaejoong, who was lying on the exam table, turned to look at Ryeowook and smiled bittersweetly. “That isn’t what I meant. He has mental guards up that I placed long ago. I must have erased all memories of me from his mind. I made his mind almost impenetrable…even to me. I have to physically touch him to alter his memory, and even doing that scares me.”

“You can’t read him?”

“Not without extreme effort. I can feel his emotions, but to actually read his thoughts is almost impossible. The protections I put up when he was a baby are still in place and protecting him…even from me now.”

“Protecting him?”

“He was a baby telepath sent to planet of none telepaths…he would have gone crazy if I had not closed off the telepathic part of his brain,” Jaejoong said, turning his head to look up at the ceiling.

Ryeowook nodded his head in instant understanding. “I understand. There are so many stories of Betazoids being raised away from their kind and the insanity that followed.”

“But still, even through my walls of mental protection…something of his Joong inheritance slips out,” Jaejoong said, smiling proudly as he remembered back to the planet where they had recovered the lost crew. “Ensign Junsu said once that Changmin was a sort of a telepath himself.”

“That’s very true. Changmin is highly intuitive. His ESP scores are off the chart, and unconscious telepathic ability would explain his high scores. As fascinating as telepathy is, I’m more concerned with your other attributes and how they might affect Changmin. Shape shifting, self-healing…bonding.”

“I’m not a shape shifter. There are things I should tell Yunho first…that I am not willing to share with you, but I am not a shape shifter,” Jaejoong said, sitting back up.

Ryeowook looked at the monitors above Jaejoong’s head again and pointed out, “The captain reported when he first encountered you that you were in a completely different body. He said you were blonde, feminine, and had blue eyes. He actually thought you were a woman.”

“True, I was still in my Joong form, which is that of a hermaphrodite. I had not bonded with anybody. All Joongs are born with blue eyes, and the color changes depending on the preference of the mate.”

“So Joongs basically become what their mate wants?” Ryeowook said with an uneasy face. The captain was bonded to a being whose whole life was dependent upon the captain and the bond the two of them shared.

“Yes,” Jaejoong said, nodding his head in agreement. “As for Changmin and his potential self-healing abilities, I am interested in that also. I promised Yunho I would not read his mind, but respecting that promise is proving to be very difficult. I am very curious about Changmin’s health history…and how he recovered from injury or sickness.”

“I can’t recall Changmin ever being really ill. He has been sick before, though, and he recovered just like a regular human would,” Ryeowook informed Jaejoong.

“It is possible he did not inherit this ability. It is also possible I put up a guard against self-healing,” Jaejoong said frowning. “Although, I would have had to place a fail safe…I know I would not have left him defenseless to death.”

“Bonding?” Ryeowook probed.

“It isn’t possible. The guards I put up keep his Joong side controlled and prevent the telepathy needed to allow for bonding. It’s very rare…almost unheard of for a Joong to mate with a non-Joong and bare a child. It hasn’t happened in a millennium…we had almost dismissed it as legend. There is no data to guide me. Changmin is a mystery to me also. When I first saw Changmin, I was shocked that he was my child with Yunho. The bond I have with the captain…is very unusual,” Jaejoong said, smiling as he thought of his mate.

Ryeowook smiled back at Jaejoong as the other man beamed at the mere mention of the captain. “I will keep your secret. My memory being manipulated isn’t a thought-”

“Ryeowook, if you don’t come to our quarters now, I am going to beam all your notebooks into the atmosphere of this planet and watch them burn,” Commander Kyuhyun’s voice rang out over Ryeowook’s insignia.

“He wouldn’t dare,” Ryeowook fumed at Kyuhyun’s warning,the talk with Jaejoong suddenly forgotten.

“Are you sure?” Jaejoong asked him with a knowing look.

Ryeowook looked at Jaejoong, shocked. “Are you saying he would?”

Jaejoong just smiled at Ryeowook. “He’s a desperate man.”

Ryeowook’s eyes widened as he turned quickly and opened the door to the exam room. “My notebooks! I will kill him.”

Jaejoong just smiled as he watched Ryeowook fly from the room.

 

***************

 

“Kyuhyun, don’t you dare,” Ryeowook said, as the doors swooshed open as he stormed into the quarters he used to share with his husband.

Kyuhyun’s voice was heard from the bedroom. “You said you want nothing to do with me, so therefore, you have no say over what I do.”

“I have say over what you do with my stuff,” Ryeowook shouted as he raced into the bedroom. Ryeowook was barely in the room when he found himself tackled and thrown on the bed. Ryeowook glared up at the man who was holding him down on the bed. “Kyuhyun, let me go,” Ryeowook said in a deadly calm voice.

“No,” Kyuhyun told him as he hovered over him.

“What do you intend to do with me?” Ryeowook asked, continuing to glare up at the man, while trying to ignore how exhausted Kyuhyun looked.

Kyuhyun looked very pleased with himself as he held the smaller man down on the bed. “I haven’t decided yet.”

“Rape is frowned on in any civilized society,” Ryeowook told his husband, fighting against the urge to spit in his face.

Kyuhyun’s smile instantly faded. “Rape? Do you even know me?”’

“No, I don’t know you. That’s the problem. I don’t know this version of you. The one that threatens to burn my notebooks, holds me against my will, and sleeps with my best friend!”

“Argh!” Kyuhyun growled and collapsed on top of Ryeowook in exasperation.

“I am sorry if you don’t like to be reminded that you slept with my best friend! Imagine how I feel about it!” Ryeowook griped, as he pulled a hand out from under Kyuhyun and started whacking him with it.

Kyuhyun reached out and grabbed the hand that was assaulting him. “You never used to be so violent.”

“You used to not have sex with my _best friend!”_

“Ryeowook, you know I would not have done it if I had known you were alive,” Kyuhyun said, lifting up his head to look Ryeowook in the face.

“I know no such thing!”

“You make me so crazy. Let’s go talk to Jae, and if he senses that I love anybody but you…then I will let you castrate me.”

Ryeowook’s eyes lit up, and he considered the offer. “No, afraid not. Jae lies like all other men if he thinks it’s for the greater good, so I wouldn’t trust him.”

“You are a man, I hate to remind-” Kyuhyun sat up suddenly, sitting on Ryeowook, and looked down at the man, “what do you mean Jae lies?”

Alarm flashed in Ryeowook’s eyes as he realized what he almost let slip out. “I hate you!”

“You hate me?”

“Yes, because it’s my instinct to trust you! To confide in you! I can’t though because you are a big, fat pig! Just like Aunt Bertha’s sows on the colony. Wait that’s insulting to those poor pigs to compare them to you!”

Kyuhyun shook his head at a loss and rolled off Ryeowook, while keeping one arm firmly wrapped around his husband in case he attempted to escape. “Okay…back to Jae lying.”

“It falls under doctor-patient confidentiality, so don’t ask,” Ryeowook told him, making no attempt to escape as he turned away from Kyuhyun and looked around the room.

Kyuhyun reached up with the one arm that wasn’t holding Ryeowook in place and ran his hand through Ryeowook’s hair. It was so much longer than Ryeowook had ever allowed it to get before. It was also a lighter brown with highlights from being exposed to the sun on the planet he had been stranded on. “You look good.”

Ryeowook, who was studying the room that was exactly as he had left it, turned back to face Kyuhyun. “You don’t. You look like shit.”

Kyuhyun’s eyes widened. “Why, my beloved, what a dirty mouth you have.”

“You bring out the worst in me,” Ryeowook responded, snarling as he turned away from Kyuhyun’s big, tired, sincere eyes.

“Really? I thought being stranded with Kangin for a year probably had more to do with it. His dirty mouth is legendary in the fleet,” Kyuhyun said, squeezing Ryeowook’s side.

Ryeowook cursed; his eyes were welling up in tears, and his legs made no attempt to move away from Kyuhyun. “I never uttered one foul word ‘til Sungmin confessed all your shared sins.”

“I am weaker than you…I’ve always been weaker than you. I am not proud of it. I did despicable things, but I had lost all my hope. I had just lost everything. You are everything to me, and I thought I lost you. The weight of that immense loss was smothering me everyday, and I knew it would never stop,” Kyuhyun tried to explain as he his hand still glided through Ryeowook’s soft hair.

Ryeowook, who still looked away from Kyuhyun, felt his heart breaking all over again. “You are not so weak. Yunho put you second in command.”

“It was because of my rank. My rank that I owed to other people, trying to impress my powerful parents. I don’t deserve the faith that Yunho has in me,” Kyuhyun told him as his hand drifted down and felt the tears that were pooling on Ryeowook’s face. “Look at me, Baby.”

“No.”

“I would never burn your notebooks. I have read them a thousand times. I just needed to get you in here. I am just so tired. I haven’t truly slept since you’ve been gone,” Kyuhyun softly explained.

Ryeowook cursed his weakness as he rolled over onto Kyuhyun burying his face in the other man’s chest. “I have so much I need to do.”

Kyuhyun wrapped his arms around Ryeowook, hugging him tightly to him. “Its shore leave…let’s just rest. You are back, and I feel like I can finally sleep.”

“Nightmares?” Ryeowook couldn’t stop himself from asking. Ryeowook hated the concern in his voice.

“No, just sleep.” 

Ryeowook lifted his head up and stared down into Kyuhyun’s eyes. “You are lying.”

Kyuhyun reached up a hand and rested it against Ryeowook’s cheek. “Not nightmares, just one huge…year long nightmare.”

Ryeowook’s heart did a flip flop as he stared down into the face that he had loved since he was sixteen years old. Kyuhyun met his stare, and suddenly Ryeowook was very aware of how long it had been since he had made love. Ryeowook had only ever been with Kyuhyun, and it had been over a year. “I missed you so much,” Ryeowook sputtered out anxiously.

“And I missed you,” Kyuhyun replied back to him as his other hand slid down ‘til it cupped Ryeowook’s cock that was growing harder by the second.

Ryeowook felt his cheeks growing warm, and Kyuhyun was now smiling up at him knowingly. “This is wrong,” Ryeowook whimpered, as he closed his eyes as Kyuhyun’s touch awakened old desires inside him. He cursed the intimacy they shared, as it started overtaking his anger.

“No, this is right…so right,” Kyuhyun told him as he lifted his head up and kissed Ryeowook.

The touch of Kyuhyun’s lips against his snapped Ryeowook out of his daze. He pulled away quickly, sitting back on his knees. “No, we can’t do this.”

Kyuhyun sat up, reaching out and grabbing Ryeowook’s hand. “Yes, we can. We are married…we are supposed to do this.”

Ryeowook closed his eyes again and forced himself to imagine Sungmin and Kyuhyun together. His plan worked as the image filled his head, and any lust he had for Kyuhyun vanished. When Ryeowook opened his eyes again, the anger was back.

“No, no,” Kyuhyun said panicking, latching on to Ryeowook with both arms. “No, not that look again! Ryeowook, we were making progress!”

Ryeowook cursed himself for being so easy, but he knew escaping Kyuhyun wouldn’t be simple…unless. “It isn’t fair.”

“Fair?” Kyuhyun asked suddenly confused.

“Yes, fair,” Ryeowook said, tilting his head in an exaggerated manner.

“Isn’t fair to whom?” Kyuhyun demanded at a lost.

“Well Sungmin for one…you can’t claim to love him and-”

“I never claimed to love him, because I never loved him!” Kyuhyun said, irritated. “I don’t know what he told you on that planet, but I highly doubt he was delusional enough to believe I loved him.”

Ryeowook tried not to smile, because a part of him really loved Kyuhyun’s reply, but he refused to give in to Kyuhyun, so he said the one thing he knew would make Kyuhyun lose his mind. “It isn’t fair to Prince Siwon either.”

Kyuhyun frowned, letting go of Ryeowook. “Prince Siwon?”

Ryeowook jumped off the bed quickly. “Yes, Siwon. We have been fighting our mutual attraction to each other for months…and now that we are both single - ”

“You are not single! You are married to me!” Kyuhyun bellowed as he sat up in bed, stunned.

“That never stopped you,” Ryeowook told him as he hurried from the bedroom.

“I thought you were dead! I thought I was widower! You are lying! You are not attracted to him!” Kyuhyun accused as he stumbled getting up from the bed, almost falling, he was so shocked by Ryeowook’s words.

The doors to their quarters swooshed open, and Ryeowook turned back and smiled at Kyuhyun. “He’s so handsome. I just can’t help myself. I mean, have you seen him?”

Kyuhyun’s jaw dropped open as Ryeowook hurried out the door.

 

***********************

“Are you satisfied?” Changmin asked his father as they strolled through the farthest reaches of engineering.

Yunho tapped his head. “Yes, I’m not the slightest bit dizzy or nauseated, and I haven’t passed out once.”

“It must be relieving to know that you don’t have to be in close proximity with him now.”

Yunho, who had an old habit of speaking with his hands that he had tried to curb upon joining Star Fleet, spread out his arms, motioning with them. “I like being in close proximity with him, but it is a relief to know our bond is now strong enough to span the ship.”

“Strong?”

“Yes, it’s the strength of the bond that allows this distance. I was once a fool and thought weakening it would allow distance, but I was wrong. Even this far apart, I can still reach out to him.” 

Changmin shook his head at his father. “Reach out…do you mean telepathically?”

“Yes, I can connect with Jae telepathically right now and have him call me over the insignia,” Yunho told Changmin, and immediately, Jae’s voice rang out over the insignia.

“Yunho, why are you interrupting my nap?”

 _“Sleeping without me, bad lover,”_ Yunho sent out mentally to Jaejoong as he answered Jaejoong aloud, “I was showing Changmin how the bond works.”

 _“Joongs like sleeping, but I would much rather you join me…and then I would happily forgo sleeping for more pleasurable activities,”_ Jaejoong told Yunho telepathically and then answered Yunho over the insignia. “Well, that’s nice. I am going back to sleep.”

 _“Soon…very soon,”_ Yunho sent telepathically to his mate, but said aloud. “Rest well.” Yunho turned to Changmin, smiling.

Changmin looked at Yunho seriously. “He could be reading your mind all the time. He could be reading all our minds. Why does this not bother you?”

“He’s not. I know he isn’t…if he was, I would know,” Yunho assured Changmin as they continued walking down the corridor toward main engineering.

“I pray you are correct and not merely being persuaded by the glow of new love,” Changmin told his father cautiously.

“Did I just hear Changmin speak of the glow of love?” Yoochun said as he suddenly walked up to them as the two of them entered main engineering. “Will wonders never cease?”

“You did,” Yunho said, grinning as Commander Yoochun approached them.

Changmin stiffened. “I was speaking of the captain and his new telepathic - ”

“Loveeerrr.” Commander Yoochun happily finished the sentence, loving to irritate Changmin. Commander Yoochun had been Yunho’s friend for many years, and bugging Yunho’s little brother-slash-son came naturally.

“I was going to say associate,” Changmin told Yoochun, not amused.

Yunho clasped an arm around Yoochun shoulder and grinned. “Associate is easier for him to handle.”

“Such a little prude, our Changmin,” Yoochun said fondly, “it seems like just yesterday he was a freshman at the academy. He was knee deep in his studies, refusing to make any friends…because everybody was so illogical.”

Changmin glared at Commander Yoochun, who had been his father’s friend at the academy. “I had friends.”

“That’s right! You were friends with timid, little Ryeowook! How did I forget that?” 

“Timid, little Ryeowook?” Yunho complained. “Let me tell you, Dr. Cho is not timid anymore. You should have seen him bossing me earlier today.”

“Well, when you were just a cadet dreaming of captaining starships, you always said you wanted a bossy Chief Medical Officer who would make you be accountable and not bow down to you,” Yoochun reminded him, causing Yunho to frown and Changmin to smile.

“Well, I didn’t know it would be the same kid I used to look out for at the academy. I mean how many times did I step in my senior year to keep him from being bullied?” Yunho moaned, causing Yoochun to laugh.

Changmin sighed at his father and shook his head. “You are practically a saint.”

Yunho snapped his fingers at Changmin and then pointed his finger at him. “And don’t you forget it.”

“Poor Yunho. So, when do we get to start beaming down to that planet?” Yoochun asked, changing the subject. “I’m hoping to seduce a certain ensign.”

Yunho scowled at his friend. “You leave Junsu alone. He isn’t interested.”

Yoochun put his hands up, making squeezing motions. “But his ass is just asking-”

“Commander,” Yunho said in a voice full of warning.

“Okay, I will behave, but if he ever shows the slightest bit of interest, all bets are off.” 

“That’s highly unlikely,” Changmin couldn’t resist from adding. “He finds you repulsive.”

“As for shore leave, I am on my way back to the bridge. Changmin and I will go over the final reports, and if it all checks out, then the crew can start beaming down in an hour,” the captain explained, eager to change the subject.

“I personally am hoping all the reports check out well. I am very interested in the old structures on the planet,” Changmin informed them.

Yunho smiled at his son. “That’s wonderful. I am glad you are going to feed your archeology sweet tooth.”

“Captain, I assure I do not have a sweet tooth. I prefer vegetables,” Changmin informed Yunho, making both the captain and the commander shake their heads at the young Lieutenant.

 

*****************

“What a beautiful day,” Eunhyuk proclaimed as he looked around the planet that he had just beamed down to with his best friend Junsu.

Junsu, who stood beside Eunhyuk, smiled brightly in agreement. “I can’t wait to get to that lake and take a good swim. Sonic showers do the job, but nothing beats the feel of real water against the skin.”

“I just wished that Sungmin and Donghae could have gone with us,” Eunhyuk said sadly as he and Junsu started walking toward the lake.

“Well sometimes it sucks being the transporter chief, but hey he gets to be in charge of everything. He has to be happy about that.”

“Yeah, it worked out for Donghae, but Sungmin…I worry about him,” Eunhyuk told his friend.

Junsu slowed, eyeing the people around the lake. “It’s Sungmin’s own fault. We all warned him that the commander was just using him to deal with his grief. Even Commander Cho warned him.”

Eunhyuk slowed to stand beside Junsu, looking unhappy now. “He almost died.”

“He’s going to be fine…is that Commander Yoochun sitting with Heechul?” Junsu asked, full of disappointment as he pointed toward the man sitting next to Heechul. Heechul was easy to recognize in his yellow sun dress. Heechul was sitting on a blanket near the lake.

Eunhyuk nodded his head. “That would be him.”

“Darn it! How am I supposed to enjoy myself with him leering at me?” Junsu asked, frowning in disappointment.

Eunhyuk reached over and patted Junsu on the back. “You will be lucky if he stops at leering. The captain is no doubt on the ship enjoying sexy times, and he won’t be here to control his friend.”

Junsu moaned and turned around in a circle. “I’m sick of having my ass pinched by that man.”

“Perhaps you should see if Dr. Cho can reduce your ass size…maybe if it didn’t stick out so much, he wouldn’t be so tempted,” Eunhyuk offered helpfully.

“Hmmm, maybe,” Junsu said as he continued to look around until his eyes focused on somebody heading down a path toward an old castle. “Hey, I wonder what Changmin is doing.”

Eunhyuk turned and followed Junsu’s gaze. “He’s probably going to explore that old castle.”

Junsu nodded his head; it did appear to him that Changmin was heading toward the old, abandoned castle. “Exploring a castle would be more fun than having my ass grabbed.”

“Well, if you aren’t going to swim, it wouldn’t be any fun for me. Exploring a castle and annoying Changmin does sound like fun,” Eunhyuk said, staying positive.

Junsu smiled and took off toward Changmin. “It sure does.”

“Hey, Changmin, wait up!” Eunhyuk yelled as he and Junsu hurried to catch up with Changmin.

 

*****************************

“Oh dear, it looks like the object of your lust just fled from you,” Heechul said in exaggerated sympathy as he laid his hand over his heart. “When will you ever win the young ensign’s heart?”

Yoochun folded his arms and frowned as he watched Junsu hurry off in the direction of Changmin. “It isn’t his heart I’m interested in.”

“Shame on you, since love does not color your desire, then you deserve to be deprived of that young man’s most prominent gluteus maximus muscles,” Heechul told Yoochun as he picked up a yellow fan with pink hearts and started fanning himself.

Yoochun groaned and fell back on the blanket. “Love is overrated. It complicates everything.”

“Tiss…tiss…tiss, love is what makes life worth living,” Heechul told Yoochun as his eyes lit up in delight as he noticed Dr. Cho walking toward them.

“Why, Dr. Cho, what brings you to my neck of the wood?” Heechul asked the young doctor who was approaching them.

Ryeowook walked up to the two men, shaking his head at Heechul, who was sitting on the blanket like he was the belle of the ball. “Heechul, I hope Commander Yoochun isn’t sweet talking you.”

Yoochun sat up quickly. “Hey, I know better. I’m not a total dog.”

“Plus, I might be crazy, but I’m not stupid,” Heechul said, leaning his head back, laughing. Yoochun turned and looked at the laughing Heechul and fell back down on the blanket, not bothering to hide his irritation.

“Nice dress.” Ryeowook couldn’t help but compliment Heechul on his attire.

Heechul stopped laughing and beamed up at Dr. Cho. “Thank you! Good Doctor, would you like to join me for some tea?”

“What tea?” Ryeowook asked, looking around the blanket.

Heechul rubbed his hands together. “I will have Lieutenant Donghae beam me down some. I have that cutie wrapped around my finger.”

“Although I am tempted, I have a lot of work to do, but I need to talk to Changmin first,” Ryeowook told them.

“Always Changmin,” Yoochun grumbled from his spot on the blanket.

“Well if you are looking for Yunho’s terminally boring son, you will have to hurry. He went off in the direction of that dreary looking castle,” Heechul helpfully informed Ryeowook as he pointed in the direction of the castle.

Ryeowook turned and faced the castle. “Well, I better hurry then. Enjoy your shore leave.”

Yoochun who was still lying on the blanket, bent his elbows and placed his hands under his head as he looked up at the sky. “I wonder if Kyuhyun and Ryeowook don’t get back together if maybe - ”

“No, Ryeowook would never be interested in you,” Heechul said, rolling his eyes.

“How do you know?”

Heechul looked down at Yoochun, while fanning himself. “Because his heart will only ever pitter patter for Commander Cho.”

Yoochun exhaled a deep breath. “Yeah, you are probably right.”

“Perhaps we are destined to be alone,” Heechul sighed and said wistfully as he fell back on the blanket beside Yoochun. “My precious Yunnie tragically trapped by that…thing.”

“Well, Yunho no longer feels trapped…let me assure you. He is happy to be bonded with Jae from what I can tell. He is practically glowing. Before I knew how Yunho felt toward Jae, I tried flirting with Jae, but he has eyes for Yunho only,” Yoochun told Heechul.

“Who would want you when they could have all…every inch of Yunho? No offense, but some men are blessed with-”

“With what?” Yoochun demanded, sitting up suddenly, very defensive.

Heechul sat up, loving how sensitive Yoochun was suddenly. “Well some men are just more endowed than others. As a nurse, I have seen visual proof of this. Speaking of the endowed,” Heechul told Yoochun, pointing toward Kyuhyun who was quickly approaching them.

“Have you two seen Ryeowook?” Kyuhyun questioned as he hurried up to them.

Heechul smiled at him, sensing trouble. “Why do you ask, Commander?”

Kyuhyun frowned at Heechul. “Because I asked, that’s why.”

“He was just here,” Yoochun told the annoyed commander.

Kyuhyun let out a breath. “Was he alone?”

Heechul’s eyes twinkled with delight now. “He might have been, or not.”

“Was he with Siwon?” Kyuhyun demanded, not bothering to hide his annoyance.

“No, he wasn’t,” Yoochun told Kyuhyun, refusing to pay Heechul’s games.

“Why would he be with Siwon?” Heechul demanded, the playfulness now gone. “He told me I couldn’t be with Siwon! So, why would he be with him?”

Kyuhyun’s face drained of color. “He told you…you couldn’t be with Siwon.”

“He did! Just today. He probably wants him for himself! He could sense our connection!” Heechul whined, ringing his hands together. “He’s trying to take my prince from me!”

“You are not supposed to be with anybody!” Yoochun pointed out.

“What way did Ryeowook go?” Kyuhyun demanded.

“He went toward the castle,” Yoochun told the commander as he looked up at him. “He was looking for Changmin.”

Yoochun watched as Kyuhyun stormed off in the direction that Ryeowook had gone in. “Did you or did you not just say that Ryeowook would only ever love Kyuhyun?” Yoochun asked the fuming man beside him.

Heechul, who was gritting his teeth and thinking of nefarious plots all against Ryeowook turned quickly to face Yoochun and shouted, “Have you seen Siwon? He is the most handsome man in the universe!”

“Does he even like men? I am pretty sure he was on his way to be married to a woman before we all got sucked into the black hole.”

Heechul’s attitude instantly changed as he lunged for Yoochun, hugging him. “You are a genius! Of course he likes girls!”

Yoochun frowned as Heechul hugged him tighter. “That isn’t exactly good news for you.”

“Are you kidding? It’s great news! I’m the only girl on the ship!” Heechul declared, full of happiness, as he let go of Yoochun and stood up. “I’m the only girl!” Heechul sang as he prancing around the blanket in circles. “I’m the only girl! I’m the only girl! I’m the only girl!”

“Crazy,” Yoochun muttered as he fell back down on the blanket.

********************

 

“Ryeowook!” Kyuhyun screamed as he hurried toward Ryeowook. “Slow down!”

“Are you stalking me now?” Ryeowook accused as he hurried on his way, refusing to slow down or turn around.

“No…well, maybe - I need to talk to you,” Kyuhyun admitted as he increased his speed.

Ryeowook clenched his fists together and he continued on his way without slowing down. “What part of ‘leave me alone’ do you not get?”

“I get it. I just won’t accept it…ever,” Kyuhyun insisted, hurrying up behind Ryeowook and grabbing him by the arm. “I will never accept it, because we are meant to be together.”

Ryeowook turned around and glared at the man who had a tight grip on him. “Not anymore.”

“Always.”

“No, now let me go.”

“Why do you want to see Changmin?”

Ryeowook frowned at him and tried to jerk his arm away. “None of your business.”

“I am the second in command of the ship…everything is my business,” Kyuhyun hotly informed him, refusing to relinquish his hold on the other man.

“Well, this isn’t,” Ryeowook insisted and he continued on his way, dragging Kyuhyun along with him.

Kyuhyun allowed Ryeowook to drag him along. “I don’t know what else to do to convince you that my heart belongs to you. I have completely ignored Sungmin.”

Ryeowook continued on his way but he paled. “Well, feel free to see him whenever you want. I don’t want to separate you two.”

“That isn’t what I meant. I don’t want to see him.”

“Well, he wants to see you. His eyes light up every time the door opens, and then they dim when he realizes it isn’t you,” Ryeowook told him sadly as he slowed down. He would never forgive Sungmin for sleeping with his husband, but it didn’t mean he wasn’t aware of the other man’s suffering.

Kyuhyun grabbed Ryeowook by the other arm and forced him to face him. “Then it’s best that I don’t give him false hope. I never made him any promises. I was using him…I am not proud of what I did, but he was just a way of me handling my grief. I thought you were dead. I was so sad-”

Ryeowook jerked his arm away quickly and slapped Kyuhyun across the face. “I am sick of that excuse! Did you ever think about mourning me…by honoring my memory? Sleeping with Sungmin was not mourning me…it was dishonoring me in the worse way.”

Kyuhyun reached up and touched his face, stunned. “You hit me.”

“Well, you have stomped on my heart and soul, so forgive me if I don’t feel bad about it,” Ryeowook hissed as he hurried away.

Kyuhyun collected himself and rushed after Ryeowook. “Everybody mourns in their own way, and I know you don’t approve, but I was only trying to handle my grief.”

“I will regret asking this, but how long…did he help you handle your grief?” Ryeowook asked as he continued toward the castle.

“That’s not important.”

Ryeowook stopped instantly, turning around to face Kyuhyun. “Six months?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Kyuhyun replied, swallowing nervously.

“Nine months.”

Kyuhyun cleared his throat and stepped around Ryeowook. “We should go find Changmin, so you two can talk.”

“Ten months?”

“I won’t listen to whatever you have to say to him. I will respect your privacy,” Kyuhyun said, hurrying ahead of Ryeowook.

“Eleven months?”

“This castle is kinda of creepy,” Kyuhyun tried to say casually, hating the fact that Ryeowook was about to be hurt more because of him. He wished he could just lie…anything to stop hurting him.

Ryeowook raced up and grabbed Kyuhyun, making the remorseful man face him. “Was our bed even cold?”

Kyuhyun winced, as Ryeowook’s question hurt more than a hundred slaps to the face ever could. “Sungmin and I never did anything in our bed.”

Ryeowook shook his head, fighting the tears that he could feel building behind his eyes. “That isn’t what I asked.”

“I know, and I wish I could lie to-” Kyuhyun’s sentence was interrupted when the ground beneath him and Ryeowook opened up, and they both fell down a deep tunnel.

 

**********

“Do you even have a gag reflux?” Yunho asked in a deep husky voice, completely amazed, as he leaned back against the bedroom wall. He moaned in pleasure, and his hands tightened in Jaejoong’s hair as his climax built.

Jaejoong, who had Yunho’s entire cock down his throat and his face pressed against Yunho’s skin, was too absorbed in what he was doing to answer Yunho. Yunho’s knee’s weakened, his vision blurred and he saw stars as he released his load into Jaejoong’s eagerly accepting mouth.

Yunho inhaled a deep breath, and opened his eyes as his mind slowly recovered from the mind blowing, pleasure-filled ride that Jaejoong had sent him on. Jaejoong slithered up Yunho’s body, licking his lips, causing Yunho to whimper. Jaejoong pulled Yunho away from the wall and wrapped his arms around Yunho’s neck, moving in for a deep kiss.

Yunho kissed Jaejoong back, desperately eager to taste himself in that glorious mouth. Jaejoong startled Yunho when he jumped up, wrapping his legs around Yunho’s waist, with his arms still firmly wrapped around Yunho’s neck. Yunho almost stumbled as Jaejoong forced him to carry him while latching back on to Yunho lips, and moving his tongue deeper into Yunho’s mouth. Yunho kissed him back with passion as Jaejoong slid up and down him while pressing into him. Yunho moved toward the bed, collapsing on it with Jaejoong underneath him.

Jaejoong’s legs remained wrapped around Yunho. Yunho pulled back from Jaejoong and looked down at him full of admiration. _“You are amazing.”_

Jaejoong smiled up at him. _“You make it easy.”_

Yunho bent back down and kissed Jaejoong. _“So amazing.”_

 _“You haven’t seen anything yet,”_ Jaejoong promised him mentally while arching under him.

 _“I can’t wait---”_ Yunho’s thought was lost as he heard his insignia go off.

 _“Ignore it!”_ Jaejoong ordered as he tightened his hold on Yunho.

The insignia beeped again. “I can’t ignore it,” Yunho explained with a groan as he broke away from the kiss.

“No, no, no, no,” Jaejoong whimpered as Yunho stretched out his hand reaching for his uniform that he had discarded on the floor earlier.

Yunho’s hand finally found the insignia and he tapped it. “Yes,” he said, sounding rougher than he would have liked.

“Captain, we are unable to reach some members of the crew,” Lieutenant Donghae’s voice informed him.

Yunho pushed free of Jaejoong and sat up at the side of the bed. “Lieutenant, they are probably just enjoying shore leave and turned their communicators off, thinking we wouldn’t catch them.”

 _“Smart boys,”_ Jaejoong grumbled mentally as he sat up behind Yunho and wrapped both arms around his mate and licked between his shoulder blades.

“Sir, I had this thought also, but one of the members is Lieutenant Jung,” Donghae explained.

Yunho tensed instantly and stood up, freeing himself of Jaejoong’s arms. It was against regulations to turn your communicator off, and Changmin would never disobey orders. “When was the last time anybody saw him?”

“A couple hours ago, Sir.”

“Who are the other missing crew members?” Yunho asked as he stepped into the sonic shower to clean himself.

“Commander Kyuhyun, Dr. Cho, Ensign Junsu, and Ensign Eunhyuk,” Donghae’s voice said over the insignia.

“Perhaps Commander Kyuhyun and Dr. Cho are speaking and do not want to be interrupted,” Yunho speculated as he showered.

“But Sir, Dr. Cho wasn’t with the commander; he was searching for Lieutenant Jung the last time he was seen,” Lieutenant Donghae explained.

Jaejoong’s eyes widened, immediately concerned. Had Dr. Cho been able to fool him? Was he telling everything to Changmin? Was this why they couldn’t reach them? Jaejoong felt an overwhelming sense of panic. If Changmin was aware of Jaejoong’s meddling…could he fight him off? Jaejoong cursed himself for telling Dr. Cho that he required physical touch to alter Changmin’s memories.

Yunho stepped out of the sonic shower and said in a voice full of command, “Lieutenant, have Ensign Kangin meet me and Jae in the transporter room.”


	3. Chapter 3

“Changmin, I don’t think the captain will be arriving anytime soon,” Junsu said sadly as he looked away from Changmin. Junsu refused to watch the rat creatures climb up Changmin.  
  
Changmin nodded his head in agreement as another pair of rat like creatures started climbing up him. “He is most likely quite absorbed with his new mate.”  
  
“But still I bet they are doing random checks, and when we don’t check in…it will raise their suspicions,” Eunhyuk tried to reason out; he paled as a creature made its way to Changmin’s wrist and started chewing on the torn skin. “Scream at it, Changmin! Scare it off!”  
  
“I doubt my screaming would have any affect,” Changmin told Eunhyuk as he tried to ignore the pain and attempted to twist his arm and knock the creature off.  
  
“Try at least,” Eunhyuk pleaded.  
  
Suddenly, Junsu let out a high pitched scream that sent the creatures running, and Changmin and Eunhyuk tensed as the sound assaulted their ears.  
  
Changmin turned to Junsu, amazed. “Junsu, I had no idea that you could imitate the mating cry of the Giant Wilderbeast of Zorra Prime.”  
  
At first Junsu smiled at being called by his name, but then he frowned. “That was my dolphin cry. It wasn’t a Wilderbeast cry!”  
  
“Who cares what it was! I am just so grateful!” Eunhyuk proclaimed happily as he watched the last of the creatures scurry from the dungeon.  
  
“I agree. It was most unpleasant, but it had the desired affect on the rodent population-”  
  
The door to the dungeon flew open and two tall, large, filthy, black-haired, wrinkled women with noticeable fangs flung Ryeowook into the dungeon as if he weighed nothing. Ryeowook rolled on the floor ‘til he ended up under Junsu’s shackled feet. The vampires did not bother shackling him to the walls, instead one vampire woman stepped forward, snarling at them, and spoke in a voice so high-pitched, it made Junsu’s dolphin cry seem like a whisper, “The great queen wishes to test your mental might. If you answer correctly, you shall receive the reward, and if you fail, we shall feast upon the reward.”  
  
Ryeowook pushed his fear aside as he clambered to his feet. “And what is the reward?”  
  
The vampire woman that had spoken tilted her head back, cackling at his question, as another vampire stepped forward and spoke in the same obnoxious voice, “I believe he fell in with you.”  
  
The two vampires laughed together, as the one that had spoken first threw the keys to the shackles at Ryeowook before exiting the dungeon with the other vampire. They did not bother to shut the door behind them.  
  
“Ryeowook, who fell in here with you?” Eunhyuk asked as Ryeowook stood still and looked at the open door where the vampires had exited.  
  
“Kyuhyun….and he is hurt. I am pretty sure he has a broken leg, but I didn’t have time to examine him before they were upon us. They were so strong -” Ryeowook said trailing off, hating himself for not being able to do more.  
  
“They are vampires; of course they are strong,” Junsu told the doctor who had not turned around yet to look at them. “Changmin needs your help.”  
  
Those words immediately had the doctor turning around and casting his assessing eyes upon the lieutenant shackled to the wall. Dr. Cho’s eyes focused on Changmin’s bloody wrist. “You have lost a lot of blood.”  
  
“And that isn’t even counting what the rats drank,” Eunhyuk eagerly offered.  
  
“I assure you, it isn’t anything I can not handle,” Changmin calmly informed them.  
  
Ryeowook, who was using the key to undo Changmin’s shackles, was fussing, “Really you can handle this? You don’t need blood?” Ryeowook grabbed Changmin’s free wrist. “Do you know what kind of diseases rats carry? They chewed on your wrist.”  
  
“I am well aware of that,” Changmin told the doctor as he watched Ryeowook lift up his jacket and open a kit that he had tucked under his jacket. “Doctor, you have a med kit?”  
  
“Of course I have a med kit. From recent experience, I have learned to always be prepared,” Ryeowook snapped. He injected two hyposprays into Changmin’s bicep. “One is to prevent infection, and it will help with the pain, and the other is to keep you from going into shock,” Ryeowook told him as he pulled out a piece of gauze and wrapped it around Changmin’s wrist.  
  
“Hey Doc, do you mind?” Eunhyuk asked, looking at his shackled extremities.  
  
“I will be right there, but first -” Ryeowook said, pulling off his insignia and handing it to Changmin. “- Lieutenant, if you could get a hold of your daddy, it would be great.”  
  
Changmin’s eyes widened. “Why would they allow you to keep this? How long did they have you?”  
  
“They had me in another room…more like a dungeon hell-hole for maybe a couple hours. I couldn’t get it to work. I am betting you can,” Ryeowook told him as he quickly unlocked Junsu and Eunhyuk shackles.  
  
“I will do my best,” Changmin told them as he tapped his insignia.  
  
  
*******************************  
  
“What if there is a lake monster slowly picking us off?” Heechul asked from his position beside Yoochun. The rest of the crew members had gathered in a circle, waiting for the captain’s arrival.  
  
Yoochun gave Heechul a long suffering look. “The problem with that, Heechul, is that those five were nowhere near the lake.”  
  
“Oh, true,” Heechul conceded as he pulled his fan up and started fanning himself.  
  
The captain soon materialized with Jaejoong and Ensign Kangin at his side. Yunho immediately went to Commander Yoochun. “Report.”  
  
“Lieutenant Jung was headed toward the castle by himself, following that path -” Yoochun said, pointing to the path that Changmin had taken, “- when Ensigns Junsu and Eunhyuk decided to follow him. Shortly after, Dr. Cho arrived, looking for Lieutenant Jung, and then, the doctor departed after Lieutenant Jung. Then, the Commander arrived, looking for the doctor. They have been gone approximately two hours at the most,” Yoochun explained.  
  
“It’s actually kinda funny if you think about it,” Heechul chirped, immediately getting a disapproving look from Yunho. “Well, if you aren’t an overprotective-dad-type.”  
  
“Lieutenant Donghae was doing random checks when he discovered that Lieutenant Changmin wouldn’t answer his call. He then broadened the checks and found the other four wouldn’t respond either,” Yoochun continued to explain.  
  
Jaejoong looked away from them and stared at the castle in the distance.  _“There is a faint nefarious presence here, and it’s not human.”_  
  
Yunho turned away from Yoochun and eyed his mate. “Do you sense them?”  
  
Jaejoong turned away from the castle and faced Yunho. “Very faintly…there are injured among them, but I am unable to distinguish who is injured. There appears to be some kind of shielding…I am not sure.”  
  
Yunho kept his calm and faced Yoochun again. “I want you to get everybody back to the ship.  We will have thirty minute check-ins, but if we fail to check-in, I don’t want you sending anybody after us ‘til you have gathered more information. Is that clear?”  
  
“Yes, sir,” Yoochun said nodding his head.  
  
“You are in charge now. Take care of my ship.”  
  
Yoochun smiled at his old friend. “I will keep her nice and safe ‘til your return.”  
  
“I will hold you to that,” Yunho said, affording his old friend a smile before he turned to Kangin and Jaejoong. “Alright, gentleman, let’s go get our crew back.”  
  
Yunho, Jaejoong, and Kangin headed off toward the castle on the path that the others had taken. They walked in silence, with Yunho leading the way, ‘til Kangin broke the silence. “You know if we had taken Yoochun, it would be like old, academy days.”  
  
Yunho couldn’t help but smile as he thought back on his academy days. “Except I need him to take care of my ship.”  
  
“You were all in the academy together?” Jaejoong asked, with his senses on alert, but still trying to avoid reading the other two men’s minds.  
  
“Same class,” Yunho answered.  
  
Kangin laughed and added, “If you are wondering why they are so highly ranked, and I’m a mere ensign.”  
  
“No, I wasn’t,” Jaejoong quickly replied…lying.  
  
“It’s okay. My mouth always got me in trouble. Yunho here never had a senior officer that didn’t want to adopt him, due to his good nature, exemplary work ethic and his natural command ability. He’s was the youngest commander in Starfleet history,” Kangin said proudly, as if he spoke of his own achievements.  
  
“I was lucky to serve under great men,” Yunho pointed out, while Jaejoong smiled at Kangin; he liked him for his loyalty to his mate.  
  
“True, a jealous man would have been intimated and threatened by you,” Kangin quickly agreed.  
  
Yunho shook his head. “Kangin, that isn’t what I meant.”  
  
“It’s the truth though,” his friend insisted.  
  
“Enough of that; we need to focus. We are almost there,” Yunho pointed out as they reached the lawns around the abandoned castle.  
  
They walked a hundred yards closer to the castle in silence. Yunho would occasionally pull out his communicator, attempting to contact his missing crew or issue orders to Commander Yoochun.  
  
Jaejoong stopped walking as his senses alerted him to a presence moving toward them. “Stop,” Jaejoong ordered, causing the other two men to come to an abrupt halt.  
  
Yunho was immediately more alert and pulled out his phaser, and Kangin followed his example. “What do you sense?”  
  
“Distorted, unstable, humanoid minds…moving closer, but as if they are underneath us,” Jaejoong said frowning.  
  
“Underneath us?” Yunho questioned as his arm instinctively found itself wrapped around Jaejoong. “Do you-” Yunho’s question was never completed, as the ground beneath them opened, and they all fell down into a dark tunnel.  
  
They landed on a floor of dirt. Jaejoong who has been in Yunho’s grasp before the fall, landed on Yunho, who let out a sharp gasp of pain.  _“Yunho!”_  Jaejoong cried mentally as a sharp piercing pain flooded his senses.  
  
“It’s just my arm. I think I broke it,” Yunho said as he tried to push himself up. Yunho studied their surroundings; they were in what appeared to be an underground passage way, and there was the occasional lit torch hanging on the walls, providing a dim light.  
  
 _“Just your arm. You are always breaking your arm,”_  Jaejoong fussed mentally as he quickly got off Yunho and examined his mate’s left arm.  
  
“Because you are always landing on me,” Yunho mumbled as he stood up squeezing Jaejoong’s arm with his right arm as he did so. “Kangin?”  
  
“I’ve been in worse places,” Kangin told Yunho as he stood up and eyed their surroundings.  
  
“Are you hurt?” Yunho asked.  
  
“Nope, I’m fine,” Kangin answered as he walked toward Yunho with his phaser drawn.  
  
 _“His ankle is hurting him.”_  
  
“How is the ankle?” Yunho asked, frowning at Kangin for lying to him. Jaejoong, who was standing now, gently held Yunho’s left arm, examining it.  
  
Kangin frowned and looked at Yunho. “I see your wife is a tattle tale.”  
  
“Kangin,” Yunho said in a voice full of warning.  
  
“Its fine,” Kangin insisted.  
  
“Yunho, I need to heal you,” Jaejoong insisted, pulling Yunho back down to the ground with him.  
  
Yunho allowed himself to be pulled back down beside Jaejoong. “What about that presence you sensed? Do we have time for this?”  
  
“I don’t know. Your pain is distracting me. It shouldn’t take long if…if I can get you to focus on me,” Jaejoong admitted as he pulled up the bloody sleeve to Yunho’s shirt, showing the broken bone sticking through the skin of Yunho’s arm.  
  
Kangin flinched upon seeing Yunho’s broken arm. “Shit, that’s gotta sting.”  
  
“Yunho, we have to set it. I shouldn’t heal it in this position,” Jaejoong told his mate, blinking his eyes, trying to control the empathic part of his brain that was drowning in his lover’s pain.  
  
Yunho, who was doing a better job at hiding the pain than Jaejoong was, reached out his arm toward Kangin, and asked grimacing, “Kangin, do you mind?”  
  
Jaejoong buried his head in Yunho’s chest, refusing to watch. Kangin gave Yunho a sorrowful look before he grabbed the arm and snapped it back in place.  
  
“Holy ToHo Shinki,” Yunho swore as his head swam in pain, and he fought against blacking out.  
  
Jaejoong was immediately upon him, his lips pressed against Yunho’s.  _“Focus on me. Only on me. Let the pain fade away,”_ Jaejoong pleaded mentally as his tongue slipped into Yunho’s mouth as he pushed Yunho down against the floor.  _“Think of only me, push the pain away, remember how good we are together, touch me, open yourself to me,”_  Jaejoong instructed as his hands flew to the sides of Yunho’s face.  _“Feel only me.”_  
  
Kangin scowled, looking away when Yunho moaned…not in pain. Yunho’s right arm wrapped around Jaejoong, pulling him closer, as the kissing intensified. “Are you two going to screw?” Kangin complained, trying to ignore the sounds coming from the two men on the floor. “Hell, Yoochun should have come; the kinky bastard would have enjoyed this….oh, fuck.”  
  
Two huge, female vampires had approached them quietly. The vampires smiled back at Kangin, showing all their teeth. They both stood close to seven feet tall, with long disheveled dirty black hair, ghostly pale skin, red eyes, and long black rotten looking fingernails that curved away from their fingers. “More dinner,” both the vampires said, speaking in high pitched voices that had Kangin fighting the urge to cover his ears.  
  
“Listen here, you ugly bitches, you better back the hell off, or I am going to blow you to hell,” Kangin said, aiming his phaser at them.  
  
One of the vampires took a step closer to Kangin and opened her mouth wider and licked her teeth with her black tongue. “Grendel, I don’t think he knows where he is.”  
  
“No Gertrude, I don’t think he does. Silly dinner, welcome to hell,” the vampire in the back growled.  
  
“I’ve been to hell, and this isn’t it,” Kangin snarled back at them and fired the phaser. Kangin’s expression immediately soured as the phaser failed to fire. “That’s just fucking great,” Kangin grumbled as he got into a fighting position.  
  
“New friends?” Yunho, who was suddenly beside Kangin, asked, as the vampires starting moving toward them.  
  
“Yeah, you know me…always making friends,” Kangin told Yunho as the captain got into position beside him. Kangin gave a quick glance to Yunho’s arm and noticed the other man was moving it without difficulty.  
  
The vampire, Gertrude, focused on Yunho and the bloody sleeve covering his left arm and inhaled deeply. “You smell deliciously of fresh blood, and such a handsome face to eat. I bet your flesh taste sweet,” the vampire said as she lunged toward Yunho.  
  
Yunho was about to kick the vampire in the stomach, when it stopped lunging toward him. It grabbed its head and let out high pitched screech of pain. Yunho watched as it stumbled around blindly while clutching its head as blood gushed from the vampire’s nose, mouth, ears, and eyes.  A very surprised Yunho and Kangin watched as the large vampire finally fell to the ground.  
  
Jaejoong stepped up beside Yunho. “That handsome face belongs to me.”  
  
Kangin and Yunho stared open mouthed as the vampire squealed out in pain, as more blood gushed from it before it went motionless. The vampire called Grendel took off quickly, leaving the three of them alone.  
  
Yunho looked away from the vampire and stared at Jaejoong, astonished. “Did…did you do that? Did you just make its head explode?”  
  
Jaejoong turned to Yunho. “Its head didn’t explode, although that would be great if it did. From what I could determine from the little I could pull from its mind, ridding it of its head is the only way to kill it. We need to cut its head off.”  
  
“Fuck, and I left my knife at home,” Kangin wittily replied, already recovered from the shock as he looked around for something that he could use to cut the vampire’s head off with.  
  
Yunho still stared at Jaejoong with widened, alarmed eyes. “How did anybody ever hold you against your will? Why did you even bother making the Zusader’s fight among themselves…if you can kill with the power of your mind,” Yunho sputtered out, shocked and scared at the power of his mate.  
  
Jaejoong eyes widened, alarmed, and he reached for Yunho, who took a step back from him, causing a sharp pain to pierce though Jaejoong’s heart. “Yunho, you…you don’t understand. A Joong can only kill when its mate or children are in danger. I couldn’t kill the Zusader’s no matter how many times they tortured me.”  
  
“Only for your mate or your children.” Yunho said, calming as he felt the truth of Jaejoong’s words. Yunho took a step toward Jaejoong, who was immediately in his arms, clinging to him.  
  
Kangin, who had taken an unlit torch from the wall and broke it in half ‘til he had a sharp stake, asked, “Can I be adopted?”  
  
“Kangin,” Yunho cautioned aloud as he hugged Jaejoong tightly to him and soothed his lover with his telepath voice,  _“I’m sorry.”_  
  
 _“Yunho, you must never be scared of me. I can’t handle it. I would do anything for you.”_  
  
 _“I know. It’s just that your abilities catch me off guard sometimes. Please bear with me.”_  
  
 _“Always,”_  Jaejoong replied as Yunho pulled away from their embrace and looked down lovingly at Jaejoong.  _“We have to find the others.”_  
  
“Seriously, I don’t see why I couldn’t be adopted. Changmin is almost as old as you are, so I think adoption is definitely an option,” Kangin prattled on, diminishing the tension, as he started chopping the vampire’s head off.  
  
“My mom would disown me,” Yunho told Kangin jokingly as he watched the ensign work at relieving the vampire of its head.  
  
Kangin smiled at the memory of Yunho’s mother as he finished ridding the vampire of its head. “Your mother loves me.”  
  
“Like a toothache,” Yunho teased the other man, and then turned to his mate. “Jae, do you sense the others?”  
  
Jaejoong nodded his head. “Yes, and there are four of them together now. Changmin is much recovered, but Kyuhyun continues to be in a great deal of pain.”  
  
“Changmin was hurt! You didn’t tell me Changmin was hurt!” Yunho exclaimed, his worry increasing ten-fold.  
  
“Smart wife,” Kangin said, stepping up next to Yunho.  
  
Jaejoong sighed and looked at Yunho. “I have only been able to distinguish them recently. We have passed through the shielding. Try contacting them again.”  
  
Yunho’s eyes let up, and tapped his insignia, but before he could say a word, Changmin’s voice filled the air. “This is Lieutenant Jung, Expectations can you hear me?”  
  
“Changmin, where are you?” Yunho exclaimed as relief flooded him.  
  
“Yunho - ” Changmin paused, “Captain, we are underneath the castle. We were being held in what appears to be a dungeon by creatures that-”  
  
Vampires!” Junsu’s voice said, breaking out over the air.  
  
“They recently brought us Dr. Cho,” Changmin continued on as if he had not been interrupted. “They have allowed us to be unshackled from the walls, and they left the door open. They wish for us to partake in some kind of test.”  
  
“Test?” Yunho questioned.  
  
“Yes, a test of mental might. If we win, our reward will be Commander Cho, and if we lose-”  
  
“They are going to eat him,” Eunhyuk’s voice could be heard saying.  
  
“Captain, I believe we are supposed to be heading toward the testing grounds. I do believe that Commander Cho’s life is in danger. Dr. Cho stated that he was injured with a broken leg,” Lieutenant Jung explained.  
  
Yunho turned Jaejoong. “Can you find them now?”  
  
Jaejoong nodded his head. “I could always have found them. I just wasn’t able to decipher or distinguish them clearly. It will be easier now though, the shielding that was interfering with me is either gone, or we have passed through it. I can easily find them.”  
  
“Lieutenant, proceed with caution. The only way to kill the vampires is by cutting their heads off. Avoid a confrontation if at all possible. We will soon be with you. Avoid the test ‘til Jae can take it for us. Understood?”   
  
“Jae skills extend to the…vampires?” Changmin asked.  
  
Yunho smiled at Jaejoong. “They do. Now proceed, and I want fifteen minute check-ins.”  
  
“Yes, Sir,” Changmin could be heard saying as Yunho tapped his insignia off.  
  
“Jae, lead the way,” Yunho ordered. Jae nodded his head in acknowledgement and started down the passageway toward the missing crew.  
  
************  
  
“Dr. Cho, you seem to be really worried about Commander Cho… does this mean you are starting to forgive him?” Ensign Eunhyuk asked as they climbed up a dark stairway that led up inside the castle.  
  
Ryeowook frowned. “I am a doctor. I would be worried about anybody if they were in Commander Cho’s predicament.”  
  
“That’s why you are the best,” Junsu told him as he elbowed Eunhyuk.  
  
“Even if they are my cheating, scumbag husband who mourned me all of a month before he jumped into bed with my best friend,” Ryeowook couldn’t help but add, fuming.  
  
“A month? More like a wee-”  
  
“Shut up, Eunhyuk; it isn’t like you were there,” Junsu interrupted, hushing his friend before he could upset Dr Cho more.  
  
“My estimate would be eight days,” Changmin offered in his cool voice, devoid of emotion.  
  
“Eight days…eight days,” Ryeowook repeated as the dagger he had felt in his back since he found Sungmin on that planet dug in deeper.  
  
Junsu had to fight the urge to swat Changmin as he felt Ryeowook’s heart break even more. “Thank you, Lieutenant, for always being so helpful with the facts, but this isn’t any of our business!”  
  
“I was merely giving an estimate. On the eighth day after Dr. Cho was assumed dead, Commander Cho was the most self-destructive and full of self-loathing. While the rest of the ship felt the lost of the multiple dead and dying crewmen, he only felt the loss of Dr. Cho. So if Commander Cho was to embark on a merely physical relationship with someone he had no romantic feelings for, it is my estimate this would have happened on the eighth day,” Lieutenant Jung explained rationally.  
  
Ryeowook slowed, wincing at the harsh reality of Changmin’s words…..Changmin’s words that were always honest. Changmin brutally exposed the short time it took Kyuhyun to jump into Sungmin’s bed, but he also did not hide the fact that Kyuhyun had been suffering. “Changmin, I think we should focus on the test for now.”  
  
“I agree. Although it should be an easy enough test if the captain arrives quickly,” Changmin stated.  
  
Eunhyuk, who was looking down at the steps, trying to keep from falling, added, “If telepathy can’t solve the test, then I vote for Changmin to take it.”  
  
“I agree, but hopefully telepathy can solve it,” Junsu said, holding the wall to the stairway they climbed up with one hand, and the other hand clung to the back of Eunhyuk’s shirt.  
  
“If we are in the business of hoping, then I would hope our phasers would suddenly start working, along with our insignias, and then we could beam out of here….ah, but hoping serves no purpose,” Changmin told them, exasperated, as he led the way.  
  
“Changmin,” Ryeowook chastised, “hope springs eternal, and it is never wrong to hope.”  
  
“You were always a dreamer,” Changmin said of his old friend.  
  
Ryeowook sighed, shaking his head at the man who walked in front of him. “Sometimes dreams come true, and sometimes they don’t, but it doesn’t make dreaming wrong.”  
  
“I learned years ago not to argue with you, even if you are incorrect,” Changmin told Ryeowook.  
  
“This is why you are so smart,” Ryeowook said, with a weak grin, as they continued on their way.  
  
***********  
  
“So, do you two have to screw in order for him to heal you?” Kangin asked as he and Yunho followed Jaejoong down a dimly lit passageway in search of the missing crew.  
  
Yunho turned and gave Kangin an appalled look for the man’s crudeness. “We didn’t have sex.”  
  
“Since the healing process took less than forty-five seconds,” Jaejoong added from in front of them.  
  
“Hey, it’s poss…nevermind,” Kangin started to say, then stopped. “So, you two only have to make out?”  
  
“Do we?” Yunho asked, puzzled. “I was unconscious the first time you healed me, so there wasn’t any…action.”  
  
Jaejoong turned around and looked at Yunho, then shook his head, pretending to be irritated. “How soon you forget.”  
  
Yunho’s mouth dropped open as he remembered what had happened between them on the planet the first time Jaejoong had healed him. “I wasn’t thinking about that time!”  
  
“I only saved your life that time,” Jaejoong said, turning around to hide his smile. “I didn’t just mend broken bones.”  
  
Yunho frowned. “I thought you did that, so you would be able to bond with me. You needed my DNA.”  
  
“Feel free to save this conversation for a later time…when I’m not around,” Kangin informed them, scrunching up his face.  
  
“I am sorry for making you uncomfortable, Kangin,” Jaejoong apologized. “I was just messing with Yunho. Yes, Yunho, I did require your DNA, so we could bond, and therefore, I could heal you. Healing just requires touch and focus.”  
  
 _“So, why the make out session? I know we got interrupted earlier, but this really isn’t the place or time,”_ Yunho asked Jae telepathically.  
  
“I require Yunho’s focus to heal him…well, if he isn’t unconscious. Healing him when he is unconscious is quite easy. When he is awake, there are too many thoughts and responsibilities dancing around in his head,” Jaejoong answered aloud for both of them. “So, I do what I have to…in order to get him to focus on me.”  
  
Kangin snorted. “Oh, I see now, and that makes perfect sense. You did have all his attention.”  
  
 _“You couldn’t have sent that to me telepathically? You just had to share?”_ Yunho accused mentally as he glared at the back of Jaejoong’s head.  
  
Jaejoong turned around and smiled at Yunho and told him, “Don’t pout.”  
  
“I don’t pout,” Yunho insisted, trying to hide the pout from his voice.  
  
 _“Of course not.”_ Jaejoong laughed as he turned back around. He couldn’t help but remember Yunho and Changmin’s conversation from earlier where Changmin had denied squirming. How much more of Yunho would he see in Changmin, the better he got to know him?  
  
Kangin who was walking beside Yunho couldn’t help but add, “You’ve been pouting for as long as I’ve known you.”  
  
“Ensign.”  
  
Kangin smiled, humoring Yunho. “I shall behave, Captain.”  
  
“With you and Yoochun, and not to mention Changmin, on this ship, I will never get any proper respect,” Yunho grumbled half-heartedly.  
  
“So not true. I respect you more than any man I know,” Kangin replied honestly.  
  
Yunho snorted. “You have a funny way of showing it.”  
  
“Well, I figure as one of your oldest friends, it’s my responsibility to fill the wife in on your more-”  
  
“Jae is not my wife, seeing that he is a man,” Yunho interrupted Kangin, correcting him.  
  
“Well, forgive me if I’m having trouble adapting to ‘The Gay Ship Lollipop.’ I always thought you were a breast man, but come to think of it, you always did have a soft spot for Dr. Kim, and not to mention that trip to - ” Kangin trailed off, as Jaejoong came to a sudden stop, holding out his hands, preventing them from moving forward. Kangin turned to Yunho. “Hey, I didn’t mean to make him jealous.”  
  
Yunho, who had walked up to Jae and placed his hands on the other man’s waist, said in an exasperated voice, “He isn’t jealous. He’s emphatic and knows exactly how I feel. He knows better…you do know better?”  
  
“Of course, I know better. But there is something wrong here; I can’t exactly place it, though,” Jaejoong said, frowning.  
  
Yunho looked around and noticed dirt drifting down from the roof of passageway in front of them. “Move back!” Yunho hollered, grabbing Jaejoong and pulling him back, right when the roof started caving in.


	4. Chapter 4

Changmin, Ryeowook, Junsu, and Eunhyuk completed their climb up the staircase and entered the bottom level of the castle. Changmin looked around the large room that had a spotless marble floor, a very high ceiling and huge chandelier hanging from it. The other levels of the castle could be easily seen as the staircase winded around each floor. Knights in their shiny armor stood as displays against the walls, and on the opposite wall from them, were three matching, gold-colored doors. “The structure is remarkably like that of a European castle during the early Renaissance period.”  
  
“Except a whole lot creepier,” Junsu added as he looked around the castle that was in perfect condition, instead of old and abandoned as the scans of the planet had suggested.  
  
“Such a brave man to insult my home,” came a voice from above them. They all looked up and eyed another vampire who stood on the second level of the castle, staring down at them. She was unlike the other vampires. She had their height, but she had long red hair, red eyes, and was as clean as the other vampires were dirty. She was extremely fat, and her long, red hair clashed with a red dress she wore that seemed to be made entirely of sequins.  
  
Changmin watched her carefully and asked, “Who are you?”  
  
“I am everything to you. I am your empress, your duchess, your countess, your madonna, your lady, and most importantly I am your queen,” she told them as she stretched out her arms, looking down at them.  
  
“Why have you brought us here?” Changmin inquired, trying to keep the skepticism out of his voice.  
  
The queen threw back her head, laughing, and told him, “I did not bring you here. You brought yourself here. You are the ones that came here searching for rest and relaxation.”  
  
Ryeowook stepped up closer to Changmin as the taller man fought to keep from frowning. “We are sorry for intruding on your planet. If you will return our crewman, we will be happy to leave,” Ryeowook explained apologetically.  
  
The queen sneered down at him. “I am sure you would be…little one, but it isn’t that easy. There is still a test to be taken.”  
  
“The test of our mental might?” Junsu asked as he walked up to Changmin’s other side with Eunhyuk close behind him.  
  
“Yes, that test…for one. You are facing three doors. Behind one of those doors is your lost comrade. He’s indisposed right now…so he isn’t going to be able to help you,” the queen told them, unable to keep the amusement out of her voice.  
  
“Indisposed?” Ryeowook demanded as he raced up to the doors that were locked. Ryeowook banged on the doors and screamed, “Kyuhyun!” but didn’t get a response. Ryeowook walked back to Changmin and looked up at the queen. “What did you do to him?”  
  
The queen’s red eyes glared down at Ryeowook. “I haven’t done anything yet, but if you fail your test, I am going to drain him of his wonderfully fresh blood. And after I have sucked him dry, I will feed his flesh to the others.”  
  
“What kind of test do you want us to do?” Eunhyuk asked, worried.  
  
“You simply have to pick the door that your comrade is behind. If you pick the right door, then I shall spare you for now, and we shall have another test,” the queen explained to them.  
  
Changmin’s right eyebrow flew up. Picking the correct door that Kyuhyun was behind would be simple for his father’s bondmate. “We will wait till our captain arrives before picking the door.”  
  
The vampire threw her head back and started laughing hysterically at Changmin’s words, as if he had said the funniest thing she had ever heard.  
  
“Changmin, when was the last time you talked to the captain?” Ryeowook asked anxiously as his skin crawled at the sound of the queen’s laughter.  
  
“You heard me. I talked to him approximately fourteen minutes ago,” Changmin answered, but he already had his hand up to his insignia, trying to contact the captain. “Captain, can you hear me?” The queen continued to laugh. Changmin eyed the other three men as he got no answer back from the captain. “Captain, come in.”  
  
Junsu swallowed nervously as he watched the queen try to control her laughter. “This isn’t good.”  
  
“Yunho, are you okay?” Changmin pleaded, his usual calm evaporating by the second. “Yunho, come in!”  
  
The vampire stopped her laughter and smiled down at them with all her teeth showing. “I’m sorry but your captain isn’t going to be able to help you or anyone else…ever again. It seems he’s gone and got himself buried.”  
  
Changmin’s eyes widened as he stepped up. “Buried?”  
  
The queen opened her mouth and licked her teeth slowly before answering him. “Such a waste of good blood, but those three somehow killed one of my darlings, and that can’t go unpunished. You have fifteen minutes to choose. If you pick wrong, we will feast upon your comrade right in front of you.” The queen then winked at the four men looking up at her and added, “I might even give you a bite.” She then turned her back on them, leaving them alone to take the test.  
  
***************  
  
“You know if you are going to subject me to crazy prisoners who like to go naked…it could at least be women with big tits-” Shindong stopped talking to squeeze his breasts. “You know what I mean?”  
  
The ensign who was sitting at the table in the security department with Shindong as he ate his dinner just shook his head. “He isn’t a prisoner.”  
  
Shindong looked up as the two other ensigns who had rounded up the naked man, leading him from the security department. “Why does he have guards then?”  
  
“He just requires close observation,” the ensign explained as he picked up a small tomato from Shindong’s plate and popped it in his mouth.  
  
Shindong frowned at one of his tomatoes being stolen. “The food isn’t anything to write home about.”  
  
“You seem to like it well enough,” the ensign said, eyeing the almost empty plate.  
  
“I have to eat for nourishment. I was just commenting on the lack of taste. All the food taste so bland,” Shindong explained.  
  
“That’s because it is synthesized.  You will get used to it,” Commander Yoochun explained, shocking the young ensign and Shindong with his unexpected arrival. Commander Yoochun leaned against the wall casually, with observant eyes studying Shindong.  
  
Shindong immediately felt off-guard. This man who had entered the security department wearing a gold uniform was not like the other members of the Expectations crew he had met before. There was something in his eyes…that wasn’t completely tame. “What does that mean exactly?”  
  
Yoochun slowly pulled away from the wall and walked to the table. “I could give you a big, long lesson on dematerializing matter and then rematerializing that matter in another form, but I will spare you.”  
  
Shindong’s eyes lit up as his mind went over the possibilities. “Does it just apply to food? Or could you do it with other substances?”  
  
Yoochun lips curled, smiling down at Shindong, but without the smile ever reaching his eyes. Commander Yoochun gently caressed the ensign’s shoulder. “Leave us, Ensign.”  
  
“Yes, Sir,” the ensign answered, getting up quickly from the table to leave the room.  
  
Yoochun took the ensign’s abandoned seat and eyed Shindong carefully. “We can replicate almost anything. Fine jewels…almost everything that makes a greedy man’s heart flutter in anticipation.”  
  
“Do you think I’m a greedy man?”  
  
“Are you denying it?”  
  
“No. What do you want from me?”  
  
“I want information.”  
  
“What do I get in return?” Shindong asked as his bartering instinct took over.  
  
“You like it here, don’t you?”  
  
Shindong frowned, but had to admit it, “You treat me well enough for a prisoner…exceptionally well. I get all the bland food I could ever ask for. My stay here has not been unpleasant.”  
  
Yoochun’s smile finally reached his eyes. “I can change all that.”  
  
“What do you mean? Captain Yunho takes very good care of his prisoners,” Shindong said, suddenly feeling uneasy.  
  
Yoochun nodded his head, still smiling. “Captain Yunho does take excellent care of his prisoners…sadly for you, I’m in charge now.”  
  
Shindong’s mouth dropped open. “What happened to the captain?”  
  
“That doesn’t matter. Here’s what matters. There is a warlord after you. He thinks you helped let his prize Joong escape him. I’ve been listening to the space chatter, and he would do about anything to get a hold of your hide,” Commander Yoochun informed Shindong.  
  
Shindong swallowed nervously. “ZhouMi.”  
  
“Yes, and if you don’t help me, I am going to hand you over to him. Do you understand me?”  
  
“Yes,” Shindong agreed, nodding his head quickly.  
  
“Computer, display the planet we are orbiting,” Yoochun ordered and instantly a screen on the wall came to life. “Do you recognize that planet?”  
  
Shindong looked at the screen and suddenly everything became clear to him. “Oh, so that’s where the good captain is. Too bad, because it’s very rare that anybody ever makes it back from that planet.”  
  
“You better hope he does,” Yoochun hissed.  
  
“I want him to…it’s just that the Planet of the Vampires isn’t a good place to be. Most who go there never return,” Shindong explained quickly, because he had no doubts that Commander Yoochun would hand him over to ZhouMi with a smile.  
  
“Vampires? What the hell are you talking about?” Yoochun asked in disbelief.  
  
“They are nasty beings. They suck you dry of blood, then they eat your remains. They have been known to appear on other planets, but they are usually stupid,” Shindong quickly informed the commander. “They say there is a queen on this planet. The few who have escaped the planet say she is wicked and loves to play games with her prey before she eats them. Somehow she reads what a ship is looking for and tricks them into landing on the planet - or beaming, in your case.”  
  
“If you are messing with me,” Yoochun warned, unable to wrap his head around the thought that vampires were real.  
  
“No, I am serious. Some have tried to put up beacons warning travelers, but the planet just manages to shoot them down,” Shindong explained.  
  
Yoochun tapped the insignia on his uniform immediately. “Lieutenant Yesung, shields up now,” Yoochun ordered, realizing the ship could be in danger.  
  
“I don’t know what else I can tell you, but I do know if you have crew down on that planet…then I wouldn’t count on getting them back,” Shindong told Commander Yoochun, who was now standing and looking down at him.  
  
“Well I do expect to get them back. I am going to send somebody in here to question you in detail, and you will be as helpful to them as you were to me…remember, it’s in your best interest if we get the captain back,” Yoochun advised as he turned and headed toward the door without sparing Shindong a backwards glance.  
  
****************  
  
“Argh,” Yunho mumbled as he awoke under a pile of small rocks and dirt with a shooting pain in his right side. Yunho pushed the rocks and dirt off him and sat up and tried to clear his mind.  _“Jae!”_  
  
 _“Yunho…so far, not a fan of shore leave.”_  
  
Yunho couldn’t help but smile as he heard his lover’s voice in his head, as the pain in his side disappeared. “Kangin?”  
  
“I’m alright, except for all this fucking dirt,” Kangin grumbled as he tried to climb to his feet. “What about you?”  
  
Yunho, who had found Jae beside him, was pushing the debris off his bondmate when he answered Kangin, “I thought I had hurt myself again, but luckily, the pain seems to have gone away.”  
  
“You used to never be so accident prone,” Kangin replied as he tried to steady his shaky feet. “You used to be able to get your ass kicked by a Gorn and come out of it with only a few bruises.”  
  
“I know. I don’t know what’s happened to me. It’s like my arm snaps like a twig lately, but lucky for me I’ve-” Yunho trailed off when he noticed a large, jagged edged rock digging into Jae’s right side. “So it wasn’t my pain I felt?”  
  
Jaejoong winced. “Sorry, I’m blocking you from it now.”  
  
Yunho shook his head and tossed the rock away. “Don’t you dare be sorry.”  
  
“It’s okay,” Jaejoong answered, wincing again when Yunho pulled up his shirt to look at the wound.  
  
“Like hell it is,” Yunho cursed. “Kangin, grab a torch and bring it over here.”  
  
 _“It will be fine.”_  
  
“Can you heal this? Can you go into your healing sleep?” Yunho asked Jae aloud, not liking the look of the wound.  
  
“I can’t risk that,” Jaejoong answered, trying not to cry out as Yunho felt the bruising that was already forming on his side.  
  
“Here,” Kangin said, holding up a torch so they could better see Jaejoong’s wound. “Ouch, that’s gotta be the liver…you do have a liver don’t you?”  
  
“What do you mean you can’t risk it? This could be serious. Go into your healing sleep and fix this,” Yunho ordered in a firm, no nonsense voice.  
  
“I will not!” Jaejoong answered back without hesitation, just as firmly. Jaejoong was immune to the authority in Yunho’s voice.  
  
“Jae! You are no help to us injured,” Yunho said, attempting to reason with his lover.  
  
Jaejoong sat up and said with a grimace, “If the vampires return…you will need me. My body will not let me die. If my condition becomes too critical, I will fall asleep.”  
  
“We can handle the vampires,” Kangin responded, causing Jaejoong to snort.  
  
“I am sure you think you can, but I’m not willing to risk Yunho’s life on that false assumption and mere bravado. I am not falling asleep, and neither of you can make me,” Jaejoong snapped, the pain making him irritable.  
  
Yunho took a deep breath and found his patience. “If I were hurt like this…you would heal me. You wouldn’t let me go around like this.”  
  
Jaejoong sighed exasperated. “When I heal you, I use the power of our bond…just believe me. It’s simpler for me to heal you, than for me to heal myself. You don’t understand.”  
  
Yunho stood up and said calmly, “That’s because you never explain anything to me. I have no idea how the bond works. I haven’t a clue how you heal me. I know little or nothing.”  
  
Jaejoong looked up at Yunho. “We’ve been busy. It’s only been three weeks. I will-”  
  
“Dude, you two have only been together for three weeks? Can you imagine what you will be like in a year?” Kangin interrupted, shocked that the two lovers had only been together for such a short amount of time.  
  
“Not quite three weeks, if you want to get technical,” Yunho answered, patting the front of his shirt “My insignia must have fallen off.”  
  
 _“It seems like longer, so much longer…in a good way,”_  Jaejoong sent to Yunho mentally.  
  
Yunho got down on his knees, feeling around for his insignia. “Don’t sweet talk me. I am not happy with you.”  
  
“Why, because I don’t want to lose consciousness and let some vampire kill you? You are mad at me because I would rather suffer than endanger your life,” Jaejoong whined, while holding his side.  
  
Yunho found his insignia and started wiping it free of dirt, ignoring Jaejoong.  
  
“Isn’t endangering his life…like endangering yours? Didn’t I hear that? Isn’t keeping Yunho alive basically keeping your own self alive?” Kangin asked Jaejoong as he held up the torch for Yunho, who was working on getting his insignia working.  
  
“How can you even suggest that? You know nothing of our bond. He was dying, and I saved him. I would have risked anything for him. To suggest that I do this out of some sort of selfishness…but of course you who’s never been in-”  
  
“Stop it!” Yunho ordered, stopping Jaejoong. Yunho then sat back down behind Jaejoong, straddling him, and wrapped his left arm around him. “He was just asking a question. You are cranky when you are hurt.”  
  
“I’m not good at hurting, but now it’s better,” Jaejoong admitted as the pain started to ease as he leaned back into Yunho.  
  
“Does my touch help you?” Yunho asked, noticing the change in Jaejoong.  
  
Jaejoong nodded his head, while looking up at Kangin apologetically. “Yes, it helps…a lot.”  
  
“Why couldn’t you have said that to begin with?” Yunho asked Jaejoong.  
  
“I should have,” Jaejoong answered, closing his eyes. “I am sorry, Kangin.”  
  
“Don’t worry about it,” Kangin told him as he started moving rocks out of their way.  
  
Yunho tapped his insignia. “Changmin, what’s your status?”  
  
“Yunho!” Changmin’s relieved voice was instantly heard. “You are alive?”  
  
“Of course I’m alive, but we have run into some trouble,” Yunho explained as Jaejoong fought to keep from falling asleep in his arms.  
  
“Captain,” Changmin replied much calmer this time. “We have encountered a vampire that calls herself the queen. She told us you were buried alive.”  
  
“We almost were; go on,” Yunho told his son, eager to know what was happening.  
  
“We are in the castle now. It seems this planet is some kind of trap for travelers. We have thirteen minutes to take her test. How long will it take you to get here?”  
  
“Jae is wounded, and we are going to have to remove some rubble before we can even start heading your way. We won’t make it in thirteen minutes. What kind of test is it?” Yunho asked calmly, trying to hide his worry.  
  
“There are three doors for us to pick between. Commander Cho is behind one of those doors. He is unable to answer us. If we pick the door that Commander Cho is behind, then he gets to live. If we pick wrong, they will feast upon him in front of us,” Changmin replied. “Is there any way Jae can help us?”  
  
“Jae,” Yunho asked, rubbing Jaejoong’s arm.  
  
Jaejoong tried to open his eyes, but failed. The desire to sleep was too strong, especially in Yunho’s warm arms. Jaejoong shook his head and answered Yunho, “Not from here. The healing sleep is trying to pull me under, and the vampire’s minds are a mess. I can’t see the doors clearly. I can sense Kyuhyun, but he doesn’t even know what door he is behind.”  
  
“Then Changmin will have to do it,” Ryeowook said over the insignia.  
  
Jaejoong’s eyes flew open at Ryeowook’s words and sputtered, “Changmin can’t do this.”  
  
“Yes, he can,” Ryeowook said. “Changmin has the highest ESP rating among the four of us here. He is extremely intelligent. Vulcans have said for decades that human beings have the capacity for telepathy, but our species is still too young to have developed this skill. Changmin is just going to get in touch with this latent ability a little early. How would you advise he do that?”  
  
Jaejoong pulled away from Yunho and focused. Ryeowook wasn’t trying to tell his secret; he was merely trying to save his husband. “Doctor, you and the other two must leave, or get as far away from him as you can. Your thoughts and feelings will only serve as a distraction. Changmin must close his eyes and push every thought that is not of Kyuhyun from his mind. Changmin has to focus on Kyuhyun…and not on how illogical or stupid he thinks this idea is. Kyuhyun is in pain, but that isn’t what he should focus on. Kyuhyun is consumed with a sense of longing. He longs for a reunion with you. Changmin must focus on longing and yearning, and he will then be able to pick the right door. Kyuhyun reeks of this,” Jaejoong instructed through gritted teeth as he fought to control his pain.  
  
Yunho pulled Jaejoong back toward him. “Lieutenant, do as Jae instructed, and once you have freed Commander Cho, contact me. That’s an order.”  
  
*****************  
  
“Doctor! I am not a telepath! This plan is absurd,” Changmin told Ryeowook, flabbergasted at his suggestion.  
  
“One of us has to do it, and you are our best choice,” Junsu answered for Ryeowook.  
  
Eunhyuk nodded his head in agreement. “Think of all the times…you have known things when you shouldn’t have.”  
  
“I know things because I’m intelligent. I know things because I observe clues that other minds can not comprehend, not because I’m telepathic!” Changmin informed them, eyeing the three doors uneasily.  
  
“Junsu and Eunhyuk, sit down,” Ryeowook ordered, pointing to the ground. The two men quickly obeyed the doctor and sat down on the ground. “I am going to sedate you till Changmin saves Kyuhyun,” Ryeowook told them as he injected both of the men in the arm with a hypospray.  
  
“Doctor, have you lost your mind?” Changmin asked in disbelief as he watched the two ensigns fall asleep. “You can’t possibly think that-”  
  
“Oh, but I do think it. You are a mystery, Jung Changmin, and you always have been. You cling to your logic like it’s a safety blanket, but you can’t do that now. You are going to toss everything you know about logic out of your head, and you are going to listen to Jae!” Ryeowook said forcibly as he pointed the hypospray at Changmin.  
  
“But-”  
  
“Don’t you  _but_ me! We have been friends for a really long time, and I know the only thing you value and trust more than logic, is the captain. The captain ordered you to listen to Jae, and that’s what you are going to do. You are going to trust in the captain’s judgment,” Ryeowook said as he sat down on the ground and adjusted the hypospray.  
  
“Ryeo-”  
  
“Stop with the doubt,” Ryeowook ordered as he looked up at Changmin with big, trusting eyes. “You can do this. I know you can. I know stuff like this scares you…feelings scare you, but you have a huge heart. I trust in you. I know you can do this for me.”  
  
“For you?”  
  
“I might be extremely angry at Kyuhyun right now, and I might want to make him bathe in Tardevil Beetle dung, but I’m not ready for him to be vampire food. He’s your friend, too. One of your real friends, and I know you can do this for Kyuhyun, for yourself, and for me. I have faith in you.”  
  
“I fear your-”  
  
“You can do it,” Ryeowook said, interrupting Changmin again. “When you are done, just hit me with this hypospray and I will arouse. You can do this. I promise you can,” Ryeowook told Changmin confidently as he injected himself in the arm and instantly fell into unconsciousness.  
  
Changmin bent down and took the hypospray from the unconscious doctor and turned to face the three doors. His internal clock counted down the seconds. The illogic of the situation was beyond anything he had ever known. It was simply beyond reason that they expected him to get in contact with some dormant telepathic abilities that the human race might or might not have.  
  
He walked over to the three doors, inspecting them for some sign of which door Kyuhyun was behind. He could find no scientific evidence to help him come to a logical conclusion. He pressed his ears against the doors, and he heard nothing. He yelled for Commander Cho, but got no response. It was an impossible situation. How Yunho could order him to follow Jae’s instructions…there had to be a scientific way of doing this. There had to be, but if there was, he could not find it in the little time he had left.  
  
He stepped away from the doors ‘til he could see all three of them. He would follow Yunho’s illogical orders. He remembered how Jae had stood that day when he had searched for the lost crew. Changmin closed his eyes and reached out his hands, and he tried to sense longing. What was longing? What did it feel like? He asked himself, but instantly, he knew the answer to his own question. Changmin longed for the truth. All of his life, Changmin had longed for the truth of his existence. He longed to know the strange circumstances of his birth and how he had traveled back in time at such a young age. This was longing, so he closed his eyes tighter and reached out for that familiar feeling. Changmin longed for the truth, and Commander Cho longed for love; although they longed for different things, the sense of yearning was the same.  
  
Changmin’s eyes snapped open instantly, and he knew without a doubt which door Commander Cho was behind. “The middle door.”  
  
  
*******************  
  
“Commander, wait!”  
  
Yoochun, who had been working in engineering, was about to step on the elevator to take him to the bridge, when a familiar voice stopped him. Yoochun turned around to find Lieutenant Sungmin walking toward him. “Lieutenant, aren’t you supposed to be in sickbay?”  
  
“I have spent too much time lying around in bed already. I should have been out of sickbay days ago,” Sungmin replied, walking up to him with determination.  
  
“I was under the impression that you were recovering from life-threatening wounds,” Yoochun said as he stepped onto the elevator with Sungmin.  
  
Sungmin nodded his head. “I was, but I am more than recovered. I have been monitoring the situation, and I think I can help.”  
  
Yoochun leaned against the wall of the elevator without commanding it to move, as he inspected Sungmin from head to toe. “And how would you help?”  
  
“There is a shield over the castle that keeps us from beaming them back to the ship.”  
  
“Yes, we discovered that earlier.”  
  
“I think we should aim our phasers at it. I think we can hit it with a low-level phaser fire setting, with just enough strength to weaken the shield, without harming anybody on the ground or in the castle. If we kept it up, we would eventually be able to drain the shield’s power. I highly doubt it has a power source that could handle a bombardment of our phasers for long,” Sungmin added without hesitation.  
  
Yoochun’s eyes twinkled, liking the lieutenant’s plan. “That’s an excellent idea; we still don’t know what the power source is, but hopefully your hypothesis about it being too weak to handle our phasers for long is correct.”  
  
“If not, perhaps it will weaken the shield enough, so our scanners can find the power source,” Sungmin added.  
  
“Bridge,” Yoochun ordered to the elevator as he smiled at Sungmin, nodding his head. “It’s good to have you back, Lieutenant.”  
  
***************  
  
  
The middle door flew open, and much to Changmin’s eternal relief, two vampires exited, dragging a gagged Kyuhyun between them. Changmin backed away from them ‘til he reached the sleeping Ryeowook. Changmin bent down and injected the doctor with the hypospray, causing him to instantly awaken, while never taking his eyes off the vampires.  
  
“You are not a regular human are you?” the queen asked, looking down from the second floor and startling Changmin. He had not noticed she had returned. “You are a strange breed of humans.”  
  
Changmin looked back up to the second floor to face her. “I am not from this galaxy,” Changmin explained as Ryeowook quickly got up and took the hypospray from him and moved toward Junsu and Eunhyuk to awaken them.  
  
“The second test will not be so easy,” the queen warned.  
  
Changmin stared at Kyuhyun, who was still being held between the two vampires. “You promised to return our comrade.”  
  
“Did I?” the queen questioned, with a smile full of deceit.  
  
“You did,” Ryeowook said, speaking up as he went to stand beside Changmin.  
  
The queen sneered down at them. “Perhaps I do not keep my promises to food. That’s what you are. Nothing but food, and I do love to eat.”  
  
“That’s obvious,” Eunhyuk mumbled from beside Changmin, where he had gone to stand. Junsu had gone to stand on the other side of Ryeowook.  
  
The queen’s glared deadly down at Eunhyuk and seethed, “I shall have you gutted - ” the queen stopped her threat as she tilted her head up as something else caught her attention. “Grendel and Goneril, give them their comrade,” the queen ordered as she hurried away.  
  
The two vampires threw Kyuhyun at them as they hurried up the stairs to follow their queen. Ryeowook hurried to examine Kyuhyun’s leg, as Junsu quickly removed the gag from Kyuhyun’s mouth. “What is going on?” Kyuhyun said, the instant the gag was off.  
  
“Commander, we are being held hostage by vampires that want to eat us,” Eunhyuk was quick to respond.  
  
“I noticed that, but I want a full report now,” Kyuhyun ordered.  
  
Changmin, who was still staring in the direction that the vampires had vanished off to, answered, “Commander Cho, this planet is a trap set by beings that call themselves vampires to lure in travelers. There is apparently a power source on this planet that prevents the Expectations from beaming us back to the ship. The captain, Ensign Kangin, and Jae are also on the planet, and they are on their way to join us.”  
  
“This is going to hurt just a little,” Ryeowook said, ignoring Changmin, as he injected a hypospray into Kyuhyun’s leg.  
  
Kyuhyun frowned down at Ryeowook, confused. “Hyposprays don’t hurt.”  
  
“That wasn’t what I was warning you about,” Ryeowook told Kyuhyun as he set the bone in Kyuhyun’s leg, causing the man to grimace in pain.  
  
“A little?” Kyuhyun complained through gritted teeth.  
  
“Eight days doesn’t get you much pain medication,” Junsu mumbled from behind Kyuhyun as he eyed the knights in armor lining the walls.  
  
Eunhyuk snickered, causing Kyuhyun to look at him suspiciously, but before he could question him, Ryeowook explained, “I have to start rationing the pain medication; it won’t last forever, and we know Jae is hurt, too.”  
  
“Understood,” Kyuhyun agreed as the pain started to ease up.  
  
“I have to report to the captain,” Changmin explained, tapping his insignia. “Captain?”  
  
“Lieutenant, how is Commander Cho?” Yunho asked.  
  
“He has a broken leg, but he seems mentally intact.”  
  
“I knew you could do it.”  
  
“It was completely illogical. I also must report that the queen suddenly disappeared. She looked panicked to me,” Changmin informed the captain. “I hate to speculate, but it seemed like something drew her attention away from us.”  
  
“Really? Maybe Yoochun is giving her something to think about. We will be there shortly,” the captain told Changmin, ending the conversation.  
  
“I am glad I appear mentally intact,” Kyuhyun said, looking up at Changmin with amusement, as Ryeowook tended to his leg.  
  
“What are you doing?” Eunhyuk asked Junsu, who was now standing in front of one of the knights in armor.  
  
Junsu pulled a sword free of the armor and smiled back at Eunhyuk. “The captain told us earlier that cutting the vampires’ heads off killed them.”  
  
***************  
  
  
  
“Are you sure?” Kangin asked as he followed Yunho up the stairs.  
  
Yunho, who was carrying Jaejoong on his back, answered, “I promise he weighs nothing.”  
  
“How is that possible?” Kangin questioned.  
  
“It’s a weird bond thing,” Yunho explained. “It’s like the bond rewards proximity,” Yunho added, remembering how easy it was to carry Jaejoong on the day of their first meeting.  
  
“It seems to come in handy, but it’s too bad you can’t heal him.”  
  
“The bond does seem to benefit me mostly,” Yunho had to admit as he climbed the stairs.  
  
 _“Not true,”_  Jaejoong whispered mentally as he fought against falling asleep as he clung to Yunho.  _“Being this close to you almost dilutes all the pain.”_  
  
 _“Almost isn’t enough, you need to heal yourself the first chance we get,”_ Yunho answered him as he quickly bent his head forward and kissed an arm that was wrapped around his neck.  
  
Jaejoong didn’t reply back; he just clung tighter to his lover as Yunho entered the castle and was immediately greeted by his crew. “Captain!” Junsu said excitedly as he ran up to the captain with a big sword in his hand.  
  
“Nice sword,” Yunho said, greeting Junsu with a relieved smile.  
  
“Vampire heads are going to roll,” Kangin said, with an expectant glint in his eyes as he walked up to Junsu, admiring the sword.  
  
“There are more,” Eunhyuk said, pointing toward the armor. Kangin immediately went in the direction of the armor to get a sword.  
  
“How is he?” Yunho asked as he walked up to Kyuhyun and kneeled down, motioning for Jaejoong to slide off his back.  
  
“I am fine,” Kyuhyun answered as Jaejoong got off Yunho and sat beside him.  
  
“His leg is broken…and is that blood?” Ryeowook asked, immediately getting up from the spot near Kyuhyun’s injured leg where he sat to grab the captain’s left arm.  
  
Yunho brushed Ryeowook off. “Jae fixed it. I am perfectly fine, but he isn’t,” Yunho replied, pointing to Jaejoong, who was looking miserable sitting next to Kyuhyun.  
  
“You look paler than normal, and I didn’t think that was possible,” Ryeowook said, inspecting Jaejoong.  
  
Yunho reached down and ran a hand through Jaejoong’s hair. “He refuses to heal himself.”  
  
“Why?” Changmin asked as he came to stand beside the captain.  
  
“My telepathy is the best defense we have, and if I’m in the healing sleep, it will be useless,” Jaejoong explained as he leaned his head into Yunho’s touch.  
  
“Can I help?” Ryeowook asked doubtfully.  
  
“No,” Jaejoong answered. “My body will metabolize anything you inject into it. It makes us practically immune to the deadly affects of poison, but it does have its drawbacks.”  
  
“I told Yoochun before I left, to work on enhancing the insignias,” Yunho told Changmin as he turned to face the younger man.  
  
“That may prove to be helpful, but still, the power source must be found,” Changmin explained to Yunho as he looked down at Jaejoong. Jaejoong had both eyes closed, as he leaned into Yunho’s hand that rested gently on his head.  
  
Yunho nodded his head in agreement. “I know, but we have wounded, so that’s going to slow any hunt we need to do down.”  
  
“Captain, I am perfectly fine. I don’t need-”  
  
“Shut up,” Ryeowook snapped at Kyuhyun. “You can’t even walk.”  
  
Kyuhyun looked up at Ryeowook, irritated. “I can wait here, though.”  
  
“By yourself? I don’t think so,” Ryeowook barked back at Kyuhyun.  
  
“I thought you didn’t care,” Kyuhyun taunted.  
  
Ryeowook practically growled, “I’m a doctor. I took an oath, and you better be glad I did!”  
  
“Hush! Nobody is getting left behind,” Yunho informed the both of them disapprovingly.  
  
“The one from earlier that I didn’t kill is coming,” Jaejoong warned from his spot next to Kyuhyun on the floor.  
  
“All of us together now,” Yunho said, standing up straighter from behind Jaejoong, as the others gathered around him.  
  
“Here,” Junsu said as he handed Yunho and Changmin each a sword.  
  
Yunho looked down at the sword and smiled at Junsu. “Thanks.”  
  
They waited, and very soon, the vampire called Grendel walked down the staircase that lead from the second floor where the queen had been.  
  
“The queen has kindly decided to provide you all with accommodations for your stay tonight,” Grendel said in the same squeaky, high pitched voice that made them all flinch.  
  
“We are all staying together,” Yunho informed the vampire.  
  
The vampire turned her back on them and started moving up the stairs. “I have no interest in your sleeping arrangements, but you will not be allowed to stay on the first floor.”  
  
 _“They are worried about something.”  
  
“About what?”  
  
“This one just knows the queen is worried.”_  
  
“Are we supposed to follow her?” Kangin asked.  
  
“You will follow me,” Grendel said as she reached the top of the stairs. “Or you will wish you had.”  
  
 _“They have a force field and they are going to tighten it around us.”_  
  
“Follow her,” Yunho ordered, as he bent down and lifted Jaejoong up into his arms with ease. “Ryeowook and Eunhyuk, get Kyuhyun. I want the rest of you on guard.”  
  
“Captain, are you sure we should follow her?” Changmin asked.  
  
Jaejoong’s eyes, which had shut once he was in the comfort of Yunho’s arms again, flew open. “Yes, it’s starting to close in.”  
  
“Move,” Yunho ordered as he moved toward the stairs.


	5. Chapter 5

The others followed Yunho as he climbed the stairs behind the vampire. The vampire named Grendel stopped at the second floor and turned around to study them. “I am surprised that it didn’t take one of you getting crushed before you followed my instructions,” the vampire said before she turned back around and moved down the hallway. Yunho reached the second floor with Jaejoong in his arms and tentatively continued to follow the vampire.  
  
“We are full of surprises,” Yunho told her.  
  
“We will see,” Grendel replied. “There are ten bedrooms on this floor.”  
  
“We will be staying together in one,” Yunho informed her again.  
  
“Kinky,” Grendel told him with a smirk. She then turned and walked down the hallway away from them.  
  
“The force field is completely enclosed around this level now. We are trapped,” Jaejoong explained from his spot in Yunho’s arms.  
  
“Well, that’s just great,” Yunho said as Kangin opened a door to a bedroom, and he followed Kangin inside.  
  
“I am starting to suspect that they were somehow able to access the Expectations’ archives. This room is exactly what one would find in a castle on ancient European Earth,” Changmin said as he eyed the bedroom with its large canopy bed, silk bedding and curtains.  
  
“Could be worse,” Eunhyuk said as he and Ryeowook deposited Kyuhyun on the bed.  
  
“Very true,” Ryeowook agreed as he grabbed a pillow and elevated Kyuhyun’s leg on it.  
  
“I personally don’t like the idea of them being in the ship’s computers,” Yunho responded as he gently placed Jaejoong on the bed and then walked toward a large window in the room on the other side of the bed.  
  
“Me either,” Kyuhyun agreed and turned to Jaejoong. “Do you sense anything right now? Are they up to anything at the moment?”  
  
Jaejoong, whose breathing had increased the instant Yunho had left him, replied, “No, nothing at the moment.”  
  
“Yoochun does me proud,” Yunho said with a smile as he looked out the window and saw a steady beam of phaser fire hitting the shield. The ship was far above them in orbit and out of sight.  
  
“He might be a sexual predator, but he does have his moments,” Junsu agreed as he stood beside Yunho, looking out the window and up at the sky.  
  
“That’s a little harsh,” Yunho said, looking at Junsu uncomfortably.  
  
Changmin stepped up between them. “If your buttocks had been groped, pinched and coveted as much as Ensign Junsu’s, you would not say so.”  
  
“I’d throw him in the brig for his behavior, but the ship would probably breakdown,” Yunho admitted with a tinge of guilt.  
  
“For the ship’s sake, I will continue to suffer then,” Junsu said full of gloom.  
  
“A true martyr,” Eunhyuk said, wrapping an arm around his friend.  
  
“Just kick his ass next time,” Kangin told Junsu as he shut the door to the bedroom, locking it.  
  
“He’s my senior officer-”  
  
“The odds of Ensign Junsu winning a fight against Commander Yoochun are extremely small,” Changmin responded, interrupting Junsu.  
  
“You could have Sungmin do it for you…well, once he’s out of sickbay,” Eunhyuk offered helpfully, and then turned to look at Kyuhyun. “What’s the use in him having all those martial arts skills if he can’t use them on somebody…worthy?”  
  
“There will be no fighting aboard the ship, is that understood?” Yunho ordered as he sensed the good-natured ribbing turning into something else.  
  
“Understood,” Junsu agreed reluctantly, because the fear of Sungmin kicking his ass might actually make Commander Yoochun behave himself.  
  
Ryeowook rolled his eyes at all of them and moved to Jaejoong’s side, resting a hand against his forehead. Ryeowook could tell that Jaejoong was in obvious distress. “Your breathing is now affected, and your body temperature is increasing. You need to heal yourself.”  
  
“No, I will be fine as soon as Yunho returns to me,” Jaejoong answered, eyeing Yunho, who was on the other side of the room, with longing.  
  
Yunho turned to face Jaejoong. “No, I want you to heal yourself. My presence only makes you put it off longer.”  
  
“Yunho,” Jaejoong cried out, realizing what his mate was doing by abandoning him to the pain.  
  
“You said yourself they were not up to anything at the moment,” Yunho reminded him.  
  
“That could change at any second,” Jaejoong whined, reaching out across the bed for Yunho.  
  
Yunho sighed and walked back toward the bed. “How long will it take you to heal yourself?”  
  
“I can’t be sure for certain. I don’t know the extent of the damage. It could be hours,” Jaejoong said with a whimper, still reaching for Yunho and the comfort his presence would bring.  
  
“Can you not wake from a healing sleep?” Yunho asked as he approached Jaejoong and gave him his hand.  
  
Relief flooded Jaejoong as he clung to Yunho’s hand. “I…I can’t say for certain.”  
  
“There is a chance then?” Yunho said as he climbed into the bed beside Jaejoong.  
  
Sitting beside Yunho was not enough for Jaejoong, who gingerly crawled into Yunho’s arms, seeking the comfort that Yunho’s full touch provided. “A chance,” Jaejoong admitted.  
  
Yunho pulled Jaejoong closer to him. “Go to sleep, and heal yourself. I am the captain, and I’m ordering you to do so.”  
  
“No,” Jaejoong mumbled as his eyes closed and his breathing eased.  
  
Ryeowook, who was watching them, whispered to Yunho, “I am pretty sure you keep holding him like that, and he will be asleep in minutes.”  
  
“No, I won’t…” Jaejoong muttered as he drifted off to sleep. Yunho smiled at Ryeowook knowingly.  
  
  
*****************************  
  
  
A couple hours later, Kyuhyun eyed Ryeowook, who was sitting on the end of the bed, leaning up against a bedpost. “You could rest up here with us. The bed is huge. There is plenty of room.”  
  
“I don’t think so,” Ryeowook answered, not bothering to look at Kyuhyun.  
  
Kyuhyun turned to look around the room and frowned as he saw Eunhyuk and Junsu turn their heads away quickly, while Kangin just stared back at him with a sour look of disapproval. The room was large, but not large enough to keep everybody from hearing everything that was being said. “Lieutenant Jung, how’s it going?”  
  
Changmin, who had been working on the insignia, trying to find a way to bypass the shield, looked up at Kyuhyun from his spot on the floor. “Commander, I might need your assistance confirming some calculations later.”  
  
Yunho, who had been listening to them, smiled. It was very rare that Changmin asked anybody for help, but Kyuhyun’s excellence in the math field was no secret. “It’s dark now,” Yunho said, leaning his head back against the headboard of the bed, waiting for Jaejoong to awaken from his healing sleep.  
  
Kangin, who was looking out the window, said, “The light show the Expectations is putting on is very impressive.”  
  
“Phaser fire at night,” Yunho said with a grin. “My kind of light show.”  
  
Jaejoong awoke at Yunho’s words and pulled away from the embrace of his bondmate reluctantly. Jaejoong turned to look at Yunho with a sleepy smile. “You cheated.”  
  
“I can’t say I’m sorry,” Yunho said, reaching out a hand to caress Jaejoong’s face.  
  
Jaejoong inhaled a deep breath and continued to smile at his lover. “I am better now.”  
  
Ryeowook crawled across the bed to Jaejoong and pulled up Jaejoong’s shirt, showing a body free of any wound. “It’s a remarkable ability you have there.”  
  
“I am very grateful for it,” Jaejoong replied as he scooted farther away from Yunho. “Go already,” he told his mate who wanted desperately to get up out of bed and check on Changmin’s progress. Yunho quickly got up out of bed and headed toward Changmin and the others. Jaejoong just smiled and stretched out yawning.  
  
“Do you sense anything?” Kyuhyun asked Jaejoong.  
  
Jaejoong shook his head yes. “Dr. Cho isn’t very happy with you……oh wait, you mean vampires. I can feel them lurking, but they are not close by,” Jaejoong told Kyuhyun, with a mischievous glint in his eyes.  
  
Kyuhyun gave Jaejoong a long suffering look. “Thanks, but I kinda already knew Dr. Cho wasn’t happy with me. He’s not exactly subtle about it.”  
  
“No, he’s not,” Ryeowook agreed from the end of the bed where he had returned.  
  
Yunho, who was hovering over Changmin, made a mental note that the Chos would not be going on away missions together ‘til they had learned to play nice. “Changmin, how close ‘til you have something?”  
  
“Much closer, but I may require a conductive metal,” Changmin told him from the floor, where he had pieces of his insignia scattered as he worked to change its calibrations.  
  
“How much closer?” Yunho couldn’t help but ask.  
  
“I am uncertain, or I would have given an approximate estimate,” Changmin answered without looking up to face his father and captain.  
  
Jaejoong was suddenly beside Yunho, wrapping an arm around him and dragging him toward the window. “Don’t hover over him. Let’s look outside at your ship’s light show.”  
  
“I don’t hover,” Yunho protested.  
  
Eunhyuk, who was standing by the window, moved over to give them room. “I’m just hoping its only vampires on this planet, and not werewolves, too.”  
  
“Do not even think of jinxing us…not with that moon,” Junsu groaned from beside him.  
  
“Moon?” Yunho said, frowning as he looked out the window and saw a full moon in the sky. “This planet doesn’t have-”  
  
“A moon,” Changmin finished for him as he got up after gathering pieces of the insignia in his hand. “Our scans of the planet did not show any sign of a moon.”  
  
“Why would they hide a moon?” Jaejoong asked as he sensed his lover and son’s interest in the full moon.  
  
“Why indeed?” Kyuhyun asked from the bed.  
  
Yunho’s eyes had a new twinkle in them. “It’s in a very low orbit-”  
  
“Much too low for a real moon; it must be an artificial one,” Changmin finished for Yunho as he stared up at the moon also.  
  
“I have a feeling we just found the power source,” Yunho said proudly. “Unfortunately, it’s beyond our grasp.”  
  
“Not beyond the Expectations, though. The shield has to be weakened. Yoochun hasn’t let up on it,” Kangin said as the sky continued to light up with the ship’s phaser assault on the shield.  
  
“It must have its own protective shielding around it, or the ships sensors would have detected it. If we could somehow alert the ship to it - ” Yunho replied as Changmin started searching around the room.  
  
“What are you looking for?” Eunhyuk asked Changmin.  
  
“A conductive metal…preferably silver or copper,” Changmin answered as he continued to search the room. “If this castle is modeled after Earth castles perhaps they used similar metals in its construction and decoration.”  
  
Without being ordered, suddenly everybody but Kyuhyun was searching the room for anything that might be made of either metal. “My grandma has antique copper eating utensils,” Ryeowook informed them.  
  
“Too bad you didn’t bring them with you,” Junsu said as he searched under the bed.  
  
“You don’t mess with my grandma’s stuff,” Ryeowook said fondly as he went through a dresser that was in the room.  
  
Kyuhyun chuckled at the memory of Ryeowook’s short, little grandma. “She once knocked me on the head with a loaf of bread for trying to sneak a cookie.”  
  
“She should have used a frying pan,” Ryeowook grumbled, not turning around to look at his husband.  
  
“She wouldn’t hurt me for the world…she loves me,” Kyuhyun responded, eyeing Ryeowook’s back.  
  
“She loves everybody,” Ryeowook said as he closed a dresser drawer and opened another.  
  
Changmin tried to hide his disappointment as the search came up empty. “We need to find a bathroom-”  
  
“Boy, do we ever! I have been holding it for hours now,” Junsu proclaimed, interrupting Changmin.  
  
Changmin closed his eyes slowly and opened them, attempting to ignore Junsu’s outburst. “A bathroom would be more likely to have copper substances.”  
  
Yunho tried to hide his smile, and he turned to Jaejoong. “Would it be safe if we separated into teams?”  
  
“No,” Jaejoong answered honestly. “They are still lurking around, and if they find out we separated, they might attack.”  
  
“We have swords now,” Kangin pointed out.  
  
“If one of us gets in trouble, wouldn’t you know?” Kyuhyun asked Jaejoong.  
  
Jaejoong sighed and shook his head. “I would know, but I can’t promise I will know in time.”  
  
“Changmin, how long will it take you to get the insignia working once you have the conductive metal?” Yunho asked.  
  
Changmin walked over to Kyuhyun and answered the captain, “Once Commander Cho confirms my calculations, and we have the copper or silver, I would now approximate five minutes or less.”  
  
“Then I say we break up into teams of two,” Yunho said as Changmin told Kyuhyun his calculations.  
  
Jaejoong, who looked nervous, added, “I can only injure them if they are attacking Yunho or about to attack Yunho.”  
  
“Or your child,” Kangin added. “You sure you don’t want to adopt us all?”  
  
Jaejoong smiled at Kangin. “I don’t think it works that way.”  
  
“If I put us in separate teams…you wouldn’t do it, would you?” Yunho asked Jaejoong.  
  
Jaejoong just smiled at him. “Absolutely not.”  
  
“I figured as much,” Yunho said, frowning. “Okay teams of two, Junsu is with Changmin, Eunhyuk is with Kangin, Jae is with me, and Ryeowook will stay here with Kyuhyun,” Yunho ordered.  
  
“Take this; I have no interest in sword play,” Changmin said, handing Ryeowook his sword after Kyuhyun confirmed his calculations.  
  
“Changmin,” Yunho said in a voice full of warning.  
  
“Captain, I assure you, I will be fine. I will be with Ensign Junsu, who I’m sure is as loud mentally as he is vocally. I am sure Jae will be alerted instantly if anything should transpire,” Changmin explained.  
  
 _“He is very loud. It takes great effort not to read his mind. He practically broadcasts it,”_  Jaejoong told Yunho mentally.  
  
“You are just rude, but I will protect you,” Junsu told Changmin fearlessly as he held up his sword.  
  
“I feel so safe,” Changmin said in a dull tone with an expressionless face.  
  
 _“You have my permission to read both their thoughts. I want to know if they see so much as a bug,”_  Yunho informed Jaejoong mentally.  
  
 _“Yes, I agree.”_  
  
“Okay, let’s get moving,” Yunho ordered aloud. “Let’s search all the rooms. Quicker we can find the metal, the faster we are out of here.”  
  
  
*************************  
  
“Well, it looks like it’s just the two of us…finally,” Kyuhyun told Ryeowook with a flirtatious wink.  
  
Ryeowook, who was shutting the door and locking it after the last of the crew left in search of copper or silver, turned and frowned at Kyuhyun, annoyed. “Unlucky me.”  
  
“Lucky me, though, because we really need to talk,” Kyuhyun said earnestly from his position on the bed, as he watched Ryeowook lean up against the closed door.  
  
Ryeowook’s eyes hardened, and he walked over to the bed and snatched the sword that Changmin had left him. “Do you really want to talk to me about how it only took you eight days to jump into bed with Sungmin?”  
  
Kyuhyun closed his eyes regretfully, then slowly reopened them. “I didn’t even know how soon it was. It’s not like it’s a day worth remembering…it’s not exactly an anniversary date I hold sacred in my heart. It’s nothing to me. Ask me when we first kissed, when we first made love; those dates I know. I used Sungmin for easy sex.”  
  
Ryeowook shook his head at Kyuhyun in disbelief. “You are such a jackass! If I were still Sungmin’s friend…I would be humiliated for him.”  
  
“Why? I never promised him anything! The few times he got clingy with me, I shoved him away. I made it more than clear that what he and I shared was nothing but sex. He knew that I couldn’t give him more, and he still kept coming back.”  
  
“Do you even hear the words coming out of your mouth, Kyuhyun? You sound just like that jerk that I first met at the academy all those years ago,” Ryeowook accused, giving Kyuhyun a look of scorn.  
  
“Because he’s the survivor in me…he survives neglectful parents, kidnappings, rape, and losing you…..he’s what survives when everything else is dead inside,” Kyuhyun explained, cursing the wetness in his eyes.  
  
Ryeowook turned his gaze away from Kyuhyun and said in a much softer voice, “We can’t be having this conversation here. I mean…we just can’t. We have to focus on the mission.”  
  
“October 31st,” Kyuhyun said, refusing to follow Ryeowook’s instructions.  
  
“That’s too easy.”  
  
Kyuhyun smiled at him and said in a wistful voice, “The setting is kinda reminiscent, though, isn’t it?”  
  
“A little.”  
  
“December 18-”  
  
“Stop it! I am serious now. I don’t need a trip down memory lane. I remember every moment of our lives spent together,” Ryeowook told Kyuhyun angrily as he started pacing back and forth in the room.  
  
Kyuhyun’s eyes tracked Ryeowook moving back and forth in the room. “Well, so do I, but I don’t think you realize that.”  
  
“I know that you were busy having sex with Sungmin, while I was stuck on a planet, hoping for nothing more than to see you again,” Ryeowook told Kyuhyun in a voice full of blame and hurt.  
  
“I might not have your hope, but it doesn’t mean I loved you less.”  
  
Ryeowook stopped pacing and glared at Kyuhyun. “We need to concentrate on the mission…this can wait.”  
  
“I can’t concentrate on anything but you! Don’t you see that!”  
  
“Just stop!”  
  
“You speak of all this hope you had…how you never gave up hope, but you refuse to give me any hope,” Kyuhyun accused, refusing to be quieted.  
  
Ryeowook gave Kyuhyun a doubtful look. “You want me to lie? You want me to give you false hope?”  
  
Kyuhyun shook his head. “No, I want you to tell me what I have to do to get you back. There has to be something I can do. Tell me.”  
  
“You can’t be serious,” Ryeowook said his jaw dropping.  
  
“I am serious. I know you love me, and I know I love you. I also know I hurt you…even though it was never my intention. You tell me what I need to do to get you back and I will do it,” Kyuhyun insisted, his face full of promise. “I just need a chance.”  
  
Ryeowook’s eyes narrowed and really looked at his husband. “Go a year without sex, and I will give you your chance.”  
  
“What!” Kyuhyun said, jumping up in bed, forgetting about his leg, causing himself to cringe as he reached for his broken leg.  
  
Ryeowook fought his instincts to run toward Kyuhyun. “I am serious. If you want me back, you have to go a year without sex.”  
  
Kyuhyun didn’t know if he was more shocked or hurt. His leg was throbbing, but he couldn’t take his eyes off Ryeowook. “Seriously…you are being serious?”  
  
The look of astonishment on Kyuhyun’s face had Ryeowook grinning as he stepped closer to the bed. “Completely. If you prove to me that you could have waited a year for me, then our marriage will resume…no hard feelings.”  
  
Kyuhyun’s mouth was hanging open as he watched Ryeowook pull out his hypospray and inject it into his leg, decreasing his pain instantly. “If you can’t do it…just tell me. We will divorce, and hopefully we can become amicable exes.”  
  
“No! I mean…I was shocked. I don’t want us to become amicable…I want us to be so much more than that…when you say a year…you don’t mean…what if we have sex?” Kyuhyun asked, stuttering, trying to make sense of the outrageous offer he had been given.  
  
Ryeowook sat on the end of the bed and folded his arms. “I have no intention of having sex with you before the year is up.”  
  
“A year,” Kyuhyun repeated.  
  
Ryeowook sighed, exasperated at his husband. “You asked how you could fix it. That’s the only way. I realize that you are incapable of doing-”  
  
“No, I’ll do it,” Kyuhyun vowed.  
  
Ryeowook furrowed his brow and responded in a voice full of skepticism, “We will see. We will see.”  
  
*********************  
  
  
“Wow, this room is much nicer,” Junsu said as Changmin and he entered another bedroom to explore.  
  
Changmin starred at the room that had pink curtains, and pink bedding. “I find it very implausible that they got all of this information from the ship’s archives. The technology that would be required to recreate all of this-”  
  
“Maybe vampires were real all along, and they came from Earth,” Junsu said, interrupting Changmin.  
  
“I highly-”  
  
“Nothing is impossible. Maybe we were not the only beings that traveled through the black hole,” Junsu said, interrupting Changmin again.  
  
Changmin shook his head at Junsu and walked toward a vanity in the room, giving up on finishing a line of thought.  
  
Junsu searched the other side of the room with his sword out. “I can’t believe the captain sent you with me. I figured he would only trust you with Kangin…well, if you weren’t with him.”  
  
Changmin exhaled as he searched the top of the vanity for something made of silver or copper. “I assure you, Jae is listening to our every thought.”  
  
Junsu’s eyes widened. “Jae is really cool. I wish I was a Joong. I think telepathy is an awesome skill…if you, like, keep people’s secrets to yourself.”  
  
Changmin opened a drawer and fought against the urge to call Junsu an idiot. “Ensign, you know he’s telepathic, which makes talking obsolete. It would be rather…and this would be copper.”  
  
“You found something?” Junsu said, full of excitement, as he hurried toward the vanity.  
  
“I did,” Changmin informed him, not turning around, as he looked down at the coin. “This should work perfectly.”  
  
“That’s wonderful. We should-” Junsu paused as he felt a gentle tap on his right shoulder. Junsu turned around quickly to find the queen standing behind him. Junsu raised his sword, but never had time to strike, as the queen grabbed him by the neck and flung him against the wall head first with brutal force before he even had time to scream.  
  
Changmin looked into the vanity’s mirror to see behind him. He saw Junsu go flying across the room. Changmin turned around quickly, listening to Junsu’s neck snap from the force of the blow against the wall. The queen gave him a small smile with cold, deadly, red eyes as she reached out for him. Changmin had no time to move before her hand was around his throat, cutting off his airway.  
  
“Nothing quite as sweet as fresh blood,” the queen told him as she tightened her grip on his neck and reached down to bite into him.  
  
Changmin kicked her as hard as he could, but she didn’t even budge. He felt her breath on his neck as his lungs cried out for oxygen. His thinking slowed, and he waited for the inevitable - when she stopped. The queen let go of him, let out a scream of agony and fell to her knees in pain.  
  
Changmin gasped for air, while trying to keep his balance, as he tried to focus his blurry thoughts. He looked behind the queen and saw Jaejoong standing there. Jaejoong had saved him. Jaejoong’s eyes met his as Changmin labored to catch his breath, and Changmin knew in that moment that Jaejoong had always been lying to him. There was a reason Jaejoong could save him. There was a reason why he had been able to sense Kyuhyun. His father would never have had a child with anybody who was not his bondmate. His father would never betray anybody he loved. He would never have a child with anybody else. Jaejoong was his other parent, and Changmin knew this for certain.  
  
Changmin pulled his eyes away from Jaejoong’s and looked down at the queen, who now had blood pouring out of her eyes, mouth, nose, and ears. The power of Jaejoong’s mind to completely rip this creature’s brain apart must be massive. Changmin looked back up at Jaejoong and knew that he must have been manipulated all along. How could he not know that Jaejoong was his parent? How could they all not know?  
  
“Come to me; she isn’t dead till her head is removed…and Junsu needs us,” Jaejoong said, reaching out his hand.  
  
“Junsu?” Changmin repeated back to him in shock. “His neck…I heard it snap,” Changmin said, refusing the offered hand as he moved away from the queen and toward Junsu.  
  
“He’s dying,” Jaejoong said sadly as he went to his knees beside the young ensign.  
  
Changmin fell to his knees on the other side of Junsu, feeling like he still couldn’t breathe. “Can you heal him?”  
  
“No,” Jaejoong said, resting his hands over Junsu’s chest. “But we can help him.”  
  
“How,” Changmin pleaded as he watched Junsu’s eyes dilate. What abilities did he have…abilities that he had no idea about, thanks to Jaejoong and his lying.  
  
“Rest your hand over his chest. Talk to him, calm him, and offer him comfort,” Jaejoong advised. “He can hear us.”  
  
“Dr. Cho…we need Dr. Cho,” Changmin insisted, still at a loss, as Jaejoong grabbed Changmin’s hand and placed it on Junsu’s chest.  
  
“He is coming, but ‘til then, this is all we can do,” Jaejoong told Changmin as he placed his hand over Changmin’s and grasped it. “Talk to him, touch him. He’s thinks he’s dying, and he can’t move. He’s very scared.”  
  
Changmin mind went blank at Jaejoong’s touch, and he felt memories and certainty slipping away from him. He tried to pull away from Jaejoong and the effects of his touch, but Jaejoong tightened his hold on him. “He isn’t dying. Ryeowook can fix this,” Changmin claimed as he found his strength and yanked himself free of Jaejoong. Changmin staggered to his feet. “I can’t help him. I don’t know how.”  
  
Jaejoong looked up at Changmin with eyes full of sadness. “No, you can help him…you can be here for him. Comfort him, talk to him, and touch him.”  
  
“I can’t,” Changmin said, stumbling backwards. “I just can’t.”  
  
“Changmin…Junsu! What happened?” Yunho asked as he ran into the room at full speed.  
  
Changmin blinked his eyes, trying to formulate his thoughts into words. He suddenly felt so confused, and the whole incident seemed like a blur to him. “Junsu isn’t dying…he’s not,” Changmin muttered to himself as he watched his father take his sword and cut the queen’s head off with one swift swing of his sword.  
  
“Jae, where is Ryeowook?” the captain demanded as he hurried to Junsu’s side.  
  
“He’s coming,” Jaejoong answered, with his hand resting on Junsu’s chest, but his eyes were on Changmin. “Be calm; he can hear us.”  
  
“He’s not dying,” Changmin repeated as he watched his father take Junsu’s hand, so easily offering the comfort he couldn’t.  
  
“No, of course he isn’t dying. Do you hear me, Junsu? You are going to be fine. Changmin will have the insignia working in no time, and we will be back aboard the ship. Ryeowook will have you fixed up in no time,” Yunho told Junsu, trying to soothe the younger man who laid there, motionless.  
  
“Dear God,” Ryeowook exclaimed as he entered the room. “What happened?”  
  
“The queen threw him against the wall…I heard his neck snap,” Changmin said as he unconsciously reached up and touched his own neck that was starting to bruise from where the queen had grabbed him so tightly.  
  
Ryeowook quickly examined Junsu and turned to face the captain. “He needs to be on the ship now…and that might not be soon enough.”  
  
The captain was up and moving toward Changmin instantly at Dr. Cho’s words. “Changmin, I need you to focus,” Yunho said, reaching for Changmin’s hand.  
  
Changmin eagerly took his father’s hand and squeezed it, drawing strength from his father’s presence. “I found a copper coin.”  
  
“Okay, I need you to fix the insignia, or tell me how to do it,” Yunho told him calmly as he watched his son try to gather his wits.  
  
Changmin nodded his head. “Of course. I must do this right now,” Changmin stammered, pulling the insignia from his pocket.  
  
“Sit down and just concentrate, okay,” Yunho ordered calmly as he moved Changmin toward the bed and motioned for him to sit down.  
  
“Okay,” Changmin repeated as he sat down.  
  
Yunho watched his son with worried eyes as Changmin’s hands shook. “Hey, it’s okay,” Yunho told him calmly as he rubbed Changmin’s back. “You are fine, and Junsu is going to be fine.”  
  
“My mind…it feels… like I can’t concentrate,” Changmin tried to explain, but even as he spoke the words, he felt a calm wash over him.  
  
Yunho continued to rub his back. “You want me and Commander Cho to help you?”  
  
Changmin looked up, shocked to find that Kyuhyun was on the bed beside him. He looked around the room and noticed that they were all together now. He hadn’t even noticed them entering the room. “Your help would be most welcome.”  
  
“What the hell is wrong with Changmin?” Kangin whispered as he stood over a fragile Eunhyuk. Eunhyuk was kneeling beside Junsu, clinging to his best friend’s hand.  
  
Jaejoong, whose hand still rested on Junsu’s chest, tensed at the question but answered, “The queen had him by the throat. His airway might be compromised.”  
  
Ryeowook’s eyes flew up to meet Jaejoong’s. “Then you should heal him, so he can think straight, and we can get Junsu to the ship.”  
  
“I can’t heal him,” Jaejoong told Ryeowook, his eyes flashing with warning.  
  
“Well, you just killed for him, and I thought that was impossible,” Kangin said, speaking up from behind them.  
  
“Joong’s choose not to kill. It’s, like, embedded into our being, but to heal is different. I do not chose who I heal,” Jaejoong explained, looking away from Ryeowook’s accusing eyes and up at Kangin. “Since Changmin is Yunho’s child, your jokes about adoption…actually did apply to him.”  
  
“Jae, Junsu is going to die if we don’t get him on the ship…and he still might. Even in this century, head and spinal cord injuries are serious business. I don’t have a magic wand to wave and make him better. I need Changmin thinking like Changmin,” Ryeowook warned Jaejoong, ready to spill all his secrets.  
  
 _“Changmin is with his father. He will be perfectly fine,”_ Jaejoong hissed mentally to Ryeowook.  
  
“We got it,” Kyuhyun proclaimed as Changmin handed the insignia to Yunho with hands that were growing steadier.  
  
“Expectations? Commander Yoochun, come in,” Yunho said into the insignia. Yunho eyes grew worried as he waited for a response.  
  
“Cap..tain…capt..ain…this…is…Expectations…the shielding…is still…up…but it is weakened,” Commander Yoochun’s voice sounded over the insignia, breaking up.  
  
“Yoochun,” Yunho said full of relief. “If you can hear me, there is an artificial moon in a SSO orbit; we believe it’s the power source. Destroy it.”  
  
“Captain, if this is all an illusion created by the power source…what’s going to happen to us when the Expectations destroys it?” Commander Cho asked.  
  
Changmin, who was rubbing his throat while keeping both eyes on Junsu’s deathly still form, answered for the captain, “I do not believe the castle is illusion. I cannot explain it, but I believe the castle to be real.”  
  
“Well, I hope you are right,” Kyuhyun told him.  
  
Changmin turned to face Kyuhyun. “I also-” Changmin never finished his sentence as they were all suddenly beamed aboard the Expectations.  
  
“Captain!” Lieutenant Donghae’s eager voice yelled out, welcoming them.  
  
“Beam the doctor and Junsu directly to sick bay,” the captain ordered immediately.  
  
Lieutenant Donghae instantly did as the captain ordered, and Dr. Cho and Junsu soon disappeared. “Captain, is he okay?”  
  
“No, he isn’t,” Yunho said, coming down from the transporter platform. “It’s not good at all. We also need to get Kyuhyun and Changmin to Sickbay,” the captain said, taking Changmin by the arm.  
  
“I am fine, Captain,” Changmin said, lying. He wasn’t fine. He felt terribly off balance.  
  
“Like hell you are,” Yunho told him as Lieutenant Sungmin and Commander Yoochun hurried into the room.  
  
Kangin grabbed Kyuhyun by an arm, pulling him up, as Donghae walked up and took Kyuhyun by the other arm. “Commander, we will have you fixed up in no time,” Lieutenant Donghae promised him.  
  
“Captain?” Commander Yoochun asked at a loss, as he took in the sight in front of him.  
  
Yunho, who had a tight grip on Changmin, just shook his head at Commander Yoochun. “It’s long story. We need to get to sickbay,” the captain told him, exiting the room with Changmin. Jaejoong and Eunhyuk were close behind them.  
  
“Where is Ryeowook,” Sungmin asked, noticing the doctor’s absence as he stared at Kyuhyun, who avoided his gaze.  
  
Kangin, who along with Donghae was helping Kyuhyun toward the door, paused and gave Sungmin a look of disdain. “Oh, he’s perfectly healthy; don’t get your hopes up.” Kyuhyun, who was being held up by Kangin and Donghae, said nothing, but just looked at the floor.  
  
“That’s ‘oh, he is perfectly healthy; don’t get your hopes up, Lieutenant’ to you, Ensign,” Commander Yoochun snapped to Kangin in Sungmin’s defense.  
  
“Yes, Sir,” Kangin said gruffly, saluting his old friend with his free hand before exiting the room with Kyuhyun and Donghae.  
  
Sungmin swallowed, hating the tension. Hating everything. Hating how Kyuhyun had not even spared him a look. “Thank you, Commander.”  
  
“There is a chain of command. If he is going to be an ensign under your department, then you better figure out a way to handle him,” Yoochun told Sungmin.  
  
“Understood,” Sungmin said, nodding his head.  
  
“Now, let’s go find out what the hell is going on.”  
  
***********************  
  
  
“So, Shindong actually helped you?” Yunho asked in disbelief. Yunho was in a large, soft chair in the Sickbay waiting room, with Jaejoong plastered to his side. Yoochun sat in a chair across from him. Yunho had sent everybody else who wasn’t in Sickbay as a patient back to their quarters to rest while they were waiting to hear word of Junsu’s condition.  
  
“Surprisingly, he proved very helpful.”  
  
“And how exactly did you manage that?” Yunho asked, narrowing his eyes in suspicion. Commander Yoochun was one of his oldest friends, and he trusted him with his life, but they were very different men.  
  
Yoochun just smiled at him. “Nobody was harmed.”  
  
“On the ship, you mean. I have three in Sickbay, and if Jae couldn’t self heal himself and heal me, we would be in sickbay, too,” Yunho told Yoochun, completely exhausted.  
  
“Yeah, but Kyuhyun and Changmin are fine. Heechul is just holding them hostage ‘til Ryeowook finishes with Junsu,” Yoochun reminded the captain. “So he can give them one final check over.”  
  
“That’s true. They are fine,” Jaejoong agreed from Yunho’s side.  
  
Yunho shook his head. “I’ve never seen Changmin that rattled. I should probably go sit with him.”  
  
“He’s asleep,” Jaejoong replied, yawning.  
  
“That doesn’t mean I can’t sit with him,” Yunho turned to face Jaejoong and responded testily.  
  
“No, it doesn’t,” Jaejoong agreed.  
  
“I see a problem arising in our near future,” Yoochun told the captain  
  
Yunho turned back to Yoochun. “What?”  
  
“Sungmin, Kyuhyun, and Ryeowook: that’s three senior officers entangled in some torrid love triangle that isn’t going away,” Yoochun explained.  
  
Jaejoong rolled his eyes, annoyed. “Sungmin should bow out gracefully. The Chos never stopped loving each other, and they will eventually find their way back to each other.”  
  
Yunho chuckled at Jaejoong and reached a hand up and ruffled his hair. “You are so sympathetic towards Sungmin.”  
  
“I am not,” Jaejoong denied. “I am not the least bit sympathetic towards Sungmin. True love should not be trifled with.”  
  
“That’s sickeningly romantic and all, but we do have a real problem. Kangin has zero respect for Sungmin. He disrespected him earlier, and Kyuhyun was right there and didn’t say a word. Kangin is one of my oldest and dearest friends, but that can’t be allowed, and Kyuhyun cannot condone it by keeping his silence. He is in second command of this ship,” Yoochun pointed out what he considered to be the real problem.  
  
“Really? Says the molester of Junsu?” Jaejoong snapped back at Yoochun, shocking both Yoochun and Yunho. “How much mental anguish have you subjected that poor boy to?”  
  
“That…that’s completely inno-”  
  
“Innocent? No, it isn’t. I was in Junsu’s mind comforting him the whole time he was on that planet, thinking he was dying. You’ve made him very uncomfortable with your advances. When he says he doesn’t like it, he isn’t lying,” Jaejoong informed Yoochun with brutal honesty.  
  
Yoochun looked totally taken aback by Jaejoong’s accusatory words. “I was just messing with him. It isn’t like I was ever going to force myself on him. I was just admiring his finer attributes. I never meant him any harm!”  
  
“Let’s just stop this conversation for now. There is room for improvement on a whole…everywhere. I will talk with Kyuhyun, Sungmin, and Ryeowook…and Yoochun you need to lay off Junsu. I know you would never hurt him, but he doesn’t take your flirting well,” Yunho said, trying to put an end to the conversation.  
  
Yoochun looked up at the ceiling and closed his eyes. “I know you are right. He turned around and followed Changmin into that castle because he didn’t want to be near me,” Yoochun admitted. “He might die because he wanted to avoid me.”  
  
“He isn’t going to die,” Yunho told his friend.  
  
“No, he isn’t,” Jaejoong agreed.  
  
“You don’t know that,” Yoochun told them as he squeezed the back of his neck.  
  
“Actually, I do know. Dr. Cho has finished with him, and he is in stable condition. It’s going to be a long recovery, but he should be fine,” Jaejoong informed them.  
  
Yunho eyes lit up. “That’s wonderful!”  
  
“Indeed it is,” Yoochun agreed, letting out a breath of air he didn’t realize he was holding.  
  
Yunho got up from the chair, pulling Jaejoong with him. “Let’s go check on Changmin.”  
  
“If you insist, but he is sleeping soundly,” Jaejoong grumbled as Yunho lead him toward the door. Jaejoong could not escape his guilt when he faced Changmin. He had temporally jumbled Changmin’s mind earlier when he had erased Changmin’s knowledge of their connection.  
  
“Oh, and Jae.”  
  
“Yes.”  
  
“Stop, reading people’s minds,” Yunho hissed.  
  
“You gave me permission to read minds!” Jaejoong whined to Yunho.  
  
“On the planet I did…when there were vampires after us. Privacy Jae! Privacy. You have to respect it,” Yunho preached, dragging Jaejoong along with him. Yoochun, who had followed them out of the waiting room, just shook his head at the very unusual couple.


End file.
